David of Saint Anne's Skete

Holy Monastic Martyr David of Saint Anne's Skete was descended from the Kydonians of the town of Aivali in Asia Minor. The inhabitants of the town had a special relationship with Mount Athos, because there were two Athonite embassy churches in their city, one belonging to Iveron Monastery and the other to Pantokrator Monastery. When David left his hometown, he went to Mount Athos and lived near a fellow countryman, a brother of Saint Anne's Skete, who later became a monk.

During his monastic life he was moved by divine zeal. With the blessing of his elder, he visited Smyrna to collect money for the reconstruction of the ruined churches of the Transfiguration of the Savior and of the Theotokos on Mount Athos. After completing work on the two temples, he built two water tanks as well as a number of cells for worshipers. He did not remain on Athos, for he burned with the desire for martyrdom. He went to Magnesia in Asia Minor, where he bore witness to Christ and mocked the Turks for their religion. They arrested him and beat him severely, and then expelled him from their city. Thus, without fulfilling his desire, he returned to the Holy Skete of Saint Anne, where he confessed to his elder his earnest desire for martyrdom. His spiritual father, fearing the outcome, tried to dissuade him but did not succeed. David went to Karyes and saw Metropolitan Pankratios, the former bishop of Christopoulos, from whom he received a blessing to seek martyrdom.

He traveled to Thessalonica, where he was told of a monk from the Vatopedi embassy church of Saint Demetrios who had converted to Islam. David tried to confront this monk, but somehow the Turks learned of his intention. They arrested him, beat him and handed him over to the judge. The judge, fearing that David might persuade the monk to abandon Islam and confess Christ, ordered the saint executed at once. That same night, 26 June 1813, David suffered a martyric death by hanging. He is especially honored at the Skete of Saint Anne on the Holy Mountain and is commemorated on 26 June (new style; 9 July on the old calendar).