Kyranna of Thessalonica

Saint New Martyr Kyranna of Thessalonica was a young woman put to death in 1751 at Thessalonica by an Ottoman official, because she would not renounce her faith. She was born in 1731 in Ossa (Visoka), a village near Thessalonica, and is commemorated on 28 February (13 March by the Julian calendar, according to the Serbian source). Her life was written by Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite in the New Martyrologion.

Kyranna was from Ossa, in the region of Thessalonica, and was known for her piety and beauty. An Ottoman janissary, a police overseer and tax collector, fell madly in love with her and tried to win her. Seeing her firm in refusal, he took her by force before the judge at Thessalonica, where, with the help of two false witnesses, he claimed that she had accepted his proposal of marriage and had earlier promised to convert to Islam, then changed her mind. Kyranna answered that she was a Christian and had no husband but Christ, to whom she offered her virginity as dowry, that He was the one she loved and that she was ready to shed her blood for Him.

She was then imprisoned, and the janissary received permission from the governor of Thessalonica to take her to prison whenever he wished. Several times he went there with other janissaries to beat and torment her. When they left, the jailer hung her by the armpits and beat her with rods, despite the cries and protests of the other prisoners in the cell. After seven days of torment, the jailer attacked her in a fit of rage and in the end killed her.

At about 4 or 5 in the morning a supernatural light appeared over the young woman's remains and a wonderful fragrance spread through the prison. The Christian prisoners in the cell began to pray. The jailer trembled with fear at this apparition, and then the Ottomans allowed the Christians to take her body and bury it. She was buried somewhere outside the walls of Thessalonica. Later, the traces of the grave were lost, and written documents say only that it is outside the city. In 2011 some of her relics were found beneath floor slabs in the church of the Archangels at Ossa. On the site of her birth house in Visoka the church of Saint Kyranna was built in 1868, according to the Bulgarian source.