John of Prousa

John the New Martyr at Prousa (Bursa) was a Christian of Bithynia, burned alive for Christ under Turkish rule, sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. He is honoured as a new martyr and is commemorated on 9 October. He has no known canonization and is absent from the hagiographical collections, being mentioned only in a note in a manuscript of Iviron Monastery.

He was a native of one of the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire that had come under Turkish rule, and took refuge at Prousa in Bithynia. He was a deacon and rose to a high administrative office. After his wife died he married again and gave up the diaconate, as the holy canons require. He led a pure life, helped the poor and those oppressed by the Turks, and was zealous at the services of the Church.

His virtue aroused the envy of the devil, who spread false rumours among the Turks. They provoked him into a dispute over matters of faith. His ardent confession that Christ is Lord and God brought on him torments ordered by the governor of the city: he was flogged and dragged by the hair. The case was referred to the sultan, who then lived in Thrace. The confessor stood firm against the sultan's inducements and threats and was condemned to be burned alive.

The executioners took him to a secluded place and tied him to a tree which, by the act of God, split into three boughs, to show that the saint had fought to the death confessing the mystery of the Trinity. They lit a slow fire to prolong his suffering, and Saint John spent three hours in prayer in the midst of the flames before giving up his soul to the Lord.