Constantine the Russian

Venerable martyr Constantine the Russian (died September 1742, at Constantinople), also called the Neapolitan, was a Russian hieromonk, priest of the church at the Russian embassy in Constantinople, who renounced the faith, repented and was killed for this. He is numbered among the saints by the Church of Constantinople as a venerable martyr, and the Russian source also mentions the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia; the date of canonization is not given. He is also entered in the Synaxis of the Athonite Venerable Fathers. He is commemorated on 26 December (Old Style). In calendars he is sometimes called, wrongly, Constantius.

Service in the Ottoman Empire

He was Russian by birth; the circumstances of his life in Russia are not known. He is known to have been ordained by Raphael (Zaborovsky) and to have served at the Saint Sophia cathedral in Kyiv, and in 1733 he was sent to Constantinople, at the request of the Russian envoy I. I. Neplyuyev, who asked for a widowed priest from Kyiv. He began with zeal to learn Greek, but the war of Turkey with Austria and Russia, in 1735, almost ended his studies. When the envoy left for Russia, Father Constantine left with him, but at Silivri he thought it better to withdraw to Mount Athos, where he lived in a solitary skete as a strict ascetic. During the war he visited Jerusalem, where he served the Liturgy several times at the Holy Sepulchre, in Greek, and preached.

At the beginning of 1740 he returned to Constantinople and showed the new envoy, A. A. Veshnyakov, testimonies about his conduct in the previous five years, signed by the patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch and Constantinople and by Athonite archimandrites. He took particular care to adorn the embassy church, at his own expense too, and busied himself with the translation of the catechism into Greek. At the end of 1741 he sent, through an Athonite monk, a letter to Archbishop Ambrose (Yushkevich) of Novgorod, complaining of his years in Turkey, where he died each day, and asking to be received under his protection. The Synod allowed his return to Russia, to Kyiv.

Apostasy and repentance

But soon he quarrelled, it is not known why, with Veshnyakov, and went over to the Turks, renouncing Christianity before the sultan and the court and professing Islam, for which he was showered with gifts. Veshnyakov described the event, in a letter to Archbishop Raphael of Kyiv, as taking place on 8 August. After accepting Islam he was seized by such repentance that in September he appeared suddenly before the sultan, renounced Islam, cursed Muhammad, trampled and tore up all the sultan's gifts and was killed by the sultan's guard, by beheading. The same Veshnyakov then wrote a joyful letter, saying that he had washed away his denial with pure repentance and with his blood. The Church of Constantinople numbered him among the saints.