Haralambos Michailides

Holy New Hieromartyr Haralambos Michailides, a priest of the village of Louroujina in Cyprus, was born in 1862 and was killed on the night of 24 September 1924. He married young the daughter of the former priest of the village and had three daughters. His wife died early, and he raised the girls alone; one of the daughters later died young, leaving four orphaned children. The sources describe him as a hospitable, hardworking and compassionate man, who cared for all his fellow villagers regardless of origin or faith. He even gave part of his own land to the Agricultural Department for a model vineyard.

Many hidden Christians, called Linobambaki, lived in Louroujina, and in the 1920s a fanatical Turkish teacher, Ratzi Effendi, began to turn them to the Turkish cause. The people drew away from their priest and stopped baptizing their children. Father Haralambos tried to bring them back, and the fanatics beat him and stoned him one night. He continued his ministry, and they decided to kill him to remove the obstacle to their plan. At that time he often slept at night in his field outside the village, and there he was killed with an axe as he slept.

The investigator ruled out robbery and looked for the culprits among the fanatics. Two brothers were tried at Nicosia and sentenced to death. The record of the trial shows that one of the accused said the priest was killed because he had continued to baptize the children of the Linobambaki. He is remembered on 24 September.