John of Tourkolekas

Saint John Tourkolekas, New Martyr, was an eleven-⁠year-⁠old child, martyred for the faith in the year 1816, at Monemvasia, in the time of Ottoman rule. He was the son of the klepht captain Stamatelos Tourkolekas and the brother of Nikitaras. He is remembered on 16 October, the day of his martyrdom, and in the village of Tourkoleka there is a church dedicated to him.

Family and journey

He was born in 1805 at Tourkoleka, in Arcadia. His father, Stamatelos Tourkolekas (sometimes called Tourkopelekas), was the leader of a band of klephts, and his mother, Sophia, was the sister of the wife of Theodoros Kolokotronis. John was the brother of Nikolas Stamatelopoulos, a captain and teacher of battle tactics, and of the renowned captain Nikitas Stamatelopoulos, known as Nikitaras. In 1806, when the Turks pursued and destroyed the klephts of the village, Stamatelos fled with his sons to Zakynthos.

In 1816 Captain Stamatelos returned secretly to the Peloponnese to see how things stood. He took with him his three sons, Nikolas, Nikitas and John, and Anagnostis Zacharopoulos, son of the renowned klepht Zacharias, who had a betrothed at Gytheio, in Mani, perhaps so that the wedding might take place. They sailed toward Kythera to obtain what they needed, but, because of bad weather, reached Vatika in Laconia. As they had no food, the father asked help of a Turk he thought trustworthy, but he betrayed them. Stamatelos, Anagnostis and John were seized and taken to Monemvasia, while Nikitas and Nikolas escaped.

Martyrdom

On 16 October 1816, before the Turks, in old Monemvasia, outside the church of "Christ Elkomenos", Stamatelos asked that only he be killed, because he had been a klepht in the Peloponnese, and that his son John and Anagnostis, raised in the Ionian Islands, be freed. The Turks asked for instructions from the voivode of Mistra, and the news reached also the pasha of Tripolitsa, who advised not to harm them, since they were British subjects (the Ionian Islands were under British rule), but also not to let them return to Mani. In vain, for before the answer came, the Turks killed Stamatelos and Anagnostis in front of John.

Then they urged John to renounce his faith in order to be saved. When he answered, "I will go where my father goes", they kept pressing him to become a Muslim, showing him his father's headless body. Despite all the opportunities given, he remained faithful to God and died praying. He was beheaded as he made the sign of the cross, and his blood, falling to the ground, formed a cross, according to Tertsetis, who heard the events from Nikitaras himself. His head and those of the others slain with him were carried to Tripolitsa, while their bodies were buried at Monemvasia, it is not known exactly where.

The church where he was martyred and the mark of his blood became a place of strengthening for fighters and of pilgrimage for the faithful. Our sources show no formal canonization, but a popular veneration, so he is held a new martyr in the Greek tradition.