James of Hamatoura

Saint James of Hamatoura was a monk of the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God on Mount Hamatoura, in the Koura region of Lebanon, which belongs to the Patriarchate of Antioch. The Church commemorates him on 13 October as a martyr (in the Arabic text, a hieromartyr) of the Mamluk period.

James began his ascetic life at the end of the thirteenth century. When the Mamluks destroyed the monastery, he re-⁠established monastic life around its ruins and in time rebuilt it. His prayer and fruitfulness made him known to the faithful and drew the attention of the Mamluks, who wanted to turn him from his purpose and bring him to Islam. Because he steadfastly refused, they dragged him, with some monks and laymen from the Monastery of Saint George higher up the mountain, to Tripoli in northern Lebanon and handed him over to the governor. For almost a year he endured heavy torments without denying his faith. On a 13 October he was beheaded, and his body was burned so that the Church could not bury him as a martyr.

The saint was almost forgotten under Ottoman rule, when many service books and local records were lost. Pilgrims and the faithful of the monastery nevertheless spoke of his appearances and healings. His commemoration on 13 October was found again in a manuscript of Balamand Monastery (number 149), and Hamatoura Monastery celebrated him again for the first time at the vigil of 13 October 2002, with a service composed by its abbot, Archimandrite Pantaleimon. The veneration is local, with no synodal canonization known from the sources consulted.