Job of Zographou

Holy Venerable Martyr Job of Zographou was one of the twenty-⁠six monks of the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou on Mount Athos, burned by Latins in the monastery's tower for the Orthodox faith. They are commemorated on 4 July (new style, a movable day), in the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of Athos.

In the year 1274 Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos entered into union with Rome, but most of the Athonite monasteries firmly refused to betray Orthodoxy and rebuked those who abandoned it. For this the Holy Mountain was attacked by Latin troops and mercenaries, who tormented many monks. The Zographou monastery, inhabited by Bulgarians, was especially in danger, because the emperor did not wish to turn the Greeks against him and vented his anger on monasteries of another nation.

Abbot Thomas of Zographou learned miraculously of the approach of the soldiers and told the brethren that those who wished to stay alive should flee the monastery, and those who desired martyrdom should stay. Twenty-⁠six remained: the abbot Thomas and the monks Barsanuphius, Cyril, Micah, Simon, Hilarion, James, another James, Job, Cyprian, Sabbas, Martinian, Cosmas, Sergius, Menas, Joasaph, Ioannicius, Paul, Anthony, Euthymius, Domitian and Parthenius, as well as four lay workers whose names are unknown. They shut themselves in the monastery tower.

On arriving, the Latin soldiers set fire to the tower. While it burned, the martyrs of Christ sang psalms and the akathist to the Most Holy Mother of God, and gave their souls to God on 10 October, between the years 1274 and 1284.