John of Batak

John (Ivan) of Batak († 1876) was one of the inhabitants killed by the Turks in the massacre at Batak, in the spring of 1876, and is commemorated among the new martyrs of Batak. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church canonized him in 2011: the Synod decided in March 2011, and the service was held on 4 April 2011 in the Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia; he is commemorated on 17 May (4 May by the old calendar).

History has preserved only the names of some of those killed: the priests Peter and Neycho, Trendafil Kerelov, burned alive on a pyre, and a few others among them John (Ivan) and Elijah. No details of his life survive. The women of Batak who survived said as early as 1877 that their husbands, so as not to become Turks and lose their souls, as the executioners wished, preferred to give themselves up to be cut down, like holy martyrs. The Russian Church too entered the names of the martyrs of Batak in its calendar, in 2011, with commemoration on 4 (17) May.