Dionysios

Dionysios Kalliarchis, Metropolitan of Ephesus, was hanged at Constantinople on 10 April 1821, the day of Pascha, at the same time as Patriarch Gregory V. The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece numbered him among the saints in July 2021, as a hieromartyr, and his memory is kept on 10 April and, in common with that of the Patriarch and the other slain hierarchs, on the Saturday of Bright Week.

He was born into a wealthy family of Constantinople, which may have come from Chios. The year of his birth and his early life are unknown. He was elected Metropolitan of Larisa in Thessaly in 1793, succeeding his uncle Meletios. His diocese covered all of Thessaly and several neighbouring sees. The region suffered from the robbery of brigands, the oppression of the janissaries and the abuses of the authorities. At great expense Dionysios obtained a firman that reduced the janissaries' tax and another that validated the wills of childless Christians. He rebuilt the church of St Achilleios, fallen into ruin since 1770, and restored the old Greek school in its courtyard; the building of the church stirred up disturbances and even attempts on his life from part of the Muslim population. He also helped the school of Tyrnavos and founded others.

In 1796 he was elected, with Hierotheos of Euripos, provost of the Great School of the Nation in Constantinople, which he reorganized successfully. In September 1803 he was elected Metropolitan of Ephesus, after Makarios. He stayed mostly in Constantinople, as a member of the Synod of the Patriarchate, and took part in the election of Gregory V as patriarch in 1797 and in his return to the throne in 1806. He gathered scholars at his house at Therapeia. At Ephesus and in his diocese he built churches and founded schools at Magnesia, Pergamon, Briulla and Ephesus. He was also a member of the Society of Friends, the Filiki Etaireia.

After the Revolution began, on 9 March 1821 the Patriarch was ordered to send several hierarchs, Dionysios among them, to the Sublime Porte, and on 10 March Dionysios was imprisoned. A month later, on 10 April 1821, Pascha Sunday, after the Patriarch had been hanged, Dionysios was hanged in the fish market of Constantinople. Metropolitans Eugenios of Anchialos and Athanasios of Nicomedia were killed with him.

The canonization was proposed to the Synod by the Metropolitans of Patras, Lefkada and Chios. The Church of Larisa honours his memory at the church of St Achilleios on 10 April.