Hilarion of Saint Anne Skete

Venerable Martyr Hilarion of Saint Anne Skete was an Athonite monk, born in Heraklion on Crete, who confessed Christ in Constantinople and was beheaded on 20 September 1804, after having once denied the faith. He is commemorated on 20 September.

The fall

In the world his name was John; he was the son of Francis and Katherine and could read and write. In youth an uncle took him to Constantinople but neglected him for ten years, so John became a clerk to a merchant of Chios. Wrongly accused of being thirty grosia short and rejected by his uncle, he went in despair to the palace, where an Ethiopian eunuch persuaded him to accept Islam to escape punishment. He was circumcised, but after three days he repented from his heart. After twelve days he managed to flee to the Crimea, where he stayed ten months, tormented by conscience.

Repentance and martyrdom

In Constantinople the great spiritual fathers, Elders Symeon and Jeremiah, advised him to go first to the Holy Mountain. At Iviron he was sent to Saint Anne Skete, to the hieromonk Bessarion, who the year before had prepared the New Martyr Luke (23 March). He received a strict rule of fasting and struggle and was tonsured a monk with the name Hilarion. One morning he said he was ready, received Communion and went with the Elder to Constantinople. He appeared before the Aga, threw down his turban and showed the black skoufia hidden under his coat, declaring that he had been a Christian, was a Christian again, and cursed Islam. The tortures crushed all his bones. He received two incorruptible crowns, of asceticism and of martyrdom.

A miracle

It is told that Elder Bessarion, in a Christian home, saw a girl of eight possessed by an evil spirit fall as if dead. He had some of the Saint's blood with him, but the spirit left before he could anoint her, and the child rose.