Gregory of Derkos

Holy Hierarch Gregory of Derkos, also called Gregory of Derkoi, was born in the village of Zoumbanta in Achaia and studied at Dimitsana, at Nauplia and at the Great School of the Nation in Constantinople. For his learning and conduct, Ecumenical Patriarch Sophronius II ordained him in February 1777 Metropolitan of Lacedaemonia, in succession to another national martyr-⁠metropolitan, Ananias Lambardis.

In 1790 he escaped arrest by the pasha of Tripolis and fled to Constantinople; unable to return to Lacedaemonia, the Patriarchate transferred him to the Metropolis of Vidin (1791 to 1801), where he became friendly with Pasvanoglu, who in 1797 rebelled against the sultan. Under Patriarch Callinicus V he was transferred to the Metropolis of Derkoi, near Constantinople. He was one of the first members of the Society of Friends and rendered many great services to the Church and to the Nation.

After Alexander Ypsilantis entered Moldavia and Wallachia (9 March 1821), he was imprisoned with the metropolitans Joseph of Thessalonica, Ioannikios of Tarnovo and Dorotheus of Adrianople. After the Revolution broke out in the Peloponnese (23 to 25 March 1821) the imprisoned hierarchs were ordered put to death: the three metropolitans were hanged at Arnavutköy, while for Gregory the gallows was set up in the courtyard of his own house at Therapia. Gregory prayed, blessed the noose, placed it around his neck, made the sign of the Cross, and so ended his earthly life on 3 June 1821, a martyr of Christ and of the Nation. In July 2021 the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece numbered him among the saints, together with the other hierarchs hanged with Patriarch Gregory V.