Five Venerable Martyrs of Leipsoi

The Five Venerable Martyrs of Leipsoi were five monks of the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian on Patmos who lived and struggled on the island of Leipsoi in the Dodecanese and were killed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by pirates or Turks. Very little is known, from the monastery's documents and local tradition.

Neophytos of Amorgos was killed in 1558 by Agarenes. Jonah of Leros was killed on 28 February 1561. Neophytos the Phazos was seized by pirates in 1609 and killed with an adze, and his memorial began on 8 December. Jonah of Nisyros, a stranger to the island, was seized in April 1635 by Bekir Pasha and beaten so severely that he died, and was buried on Leipsoi. Parthenios, from Philippopolis, died in 1696, a recluse by a spring in the wild, struck by a fisherman's spear. A well-⁠known hymnographer, Dr. Charalambos Bousias, composed their service, which was published in 1999 by the parish priest of Leipsoi, Archimandrite Nikephoros Koumoundouros, together with the biographical details he could gather.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate, by act number 693 of 2002, numbered them among the saints of the Church, to be honoured by the faithful. They are celebrated on the first Sunday after 10 July, that is, between 11 and 17 July (new style).