Dionysius of Vatopedi

Holy Venerable Martyr Dionysius of Vatopedi was a monk of the Vatopedi Monastery on the Holy Mountain of Athos and suffered in 1822 on the island of Crete because he would not renounce the faith and accept Islam.

In 1822 a terrible epidemic raged in Crete, and Dionysius was sent there to accompany the Holy Girdle of the Most Holy Theotokos, kept at Vatopedi. At that time the uprising against Turkish rule, which had risen throughout Greece, reached Crete as well. The Turks seized Dionysius and tried to make him deny his faith. He refused, and the Turks tortured him cruelly, driving iron stakes heated in the fire into his temples. On Clean Monday of 1822 he was sentenced to hanging.

His glorification was made by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 2007 his name was entered in the calendar of the Russian Church by decision of its Holy Synod. He is commemorated on 13 August (new style).