James of Zographou

Holy Venerable Martyr James of Zographou, the second of that name among the twenty-⁠six martyrs of the Athonite monastery of Zographou, suffered at the time when, after the union with Rome made by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1274, the Holy Mountain was laid waste by Latin troops for its steadfastness in Orthodoxy. Nothing is said of him except that he was one of the monks who stayed in the monastery; therefore we give the story briefly.

Hegumen Thomas, learning before the soldiers came, told the monks that those who wished to live should leave, and those who desired martyrdom should remain. Twenty-⁠six chose to remain, among them two monks named James, and shut themselves in the tower of the monastery. The Latin soldiers set the tower on fire, and the monks sang psalms and the akathist to the Mother of God until they gave their souls to the Lord, on 10 October, between the years 1274 and 1284.

He is commemorated on 4 July (new style, a movable day), in the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of Athos.