Clement Benetos

Clement Benetos was a hieromonk of the Monastery of Nea Moni on Chios. He was killed by the Ottomans on Chios in 1822, and the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece numbered him among the saints on 15 July 2021, on the proposal of Metropolitan Markos of Chios. His commemoration, together with that of the other martyrs of Chios, is kept on the Sunday of the Paralytic, at the metropolitan church of Chios.

Chios was laid waste in the spring of 1822, when the Ottomans moved against the island: thousands were slaughtered, others sold as slaves, and monasteries and churches were burned or plundered. Nea Moni, built by the Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, became the tomb of about two thousand three hundred Christians, and its church was burned and its treasures plundered. Our sources say no more about his earlier life or the circumstances of his death.