Ignatius Agallianos

Holy Hierarch Ignatius Agallianos (Ignatius Agallianos), archbishop of Methymna, the Wonderworker, lived from 1492 to 1566 and is the founder of the Monastery of Limonos on Lesbos. He is commemorated on 14 October.

He was born in 1492 in the village of Faranga in Mytilene, near Kalloni, and bore the family name Agallianos; his father, Emmanuel Agallianos, was a priest in Mytilene. His name as a layman was John. He married young and became a priest too. After his wife and children died in an epidemic, except for one son, Methodios, he withdrew to the Taxiarch at Limonos, occupied with study, prayer and the working of his father's estate.

In the years of Turkish rule over the island he rendered great and important services to the monasteries there and to enslaved Christians. For these, and for the holiness of his life, in 1531 he was chosen metropolitan of Methymna. In his new service too he proved a perfect shepherd and, having shepherded Christ's flock in a God-⁠pleasing way, he fell asleep in peace in 1566. His oldest icon, probably from his lifetime, calls him "the founder".