Luke of Adrianople

Holy Venerable New Martyr Luke of Adrianople was born in Adrianople in Thrace to the Christian parents Athanasios and Domnitsa, and he died by hanging at Mytilene on the island of Lesbos on 23 March 1802. He is called a venerable martyr because he lived as a monk on the Holy Mountain before his martyrdom.

Childhood and fall

Luke lost his father at the age of six, and his mother, in poverty, entrusted him to a merchant from Zagora. With him he moved to Constantinople. At thirteen he quarrelled and came to blows with a young Turk outside his master's house. The Turks who saw it rushed at him, and Luke, to escape punishment, said that he would turn Turk. A Turkish nobleman took hold of him and brought about his conversion to Islam.

Return and Mount Athos

Troubled in conscience, Luke asked his master from Zagora for help, and the master tried to free him through the Russian embassy. The embassy agreed to take him only if he fled from his Turkish master's house. After a few days he managed to escape, boarded a ship to Smyrna and from there reached the island of Thera. On the advice of a spiritual father he went to the Holy Mountain, where he stayed for a long time, visited several sketes and monasteries, and was tonsured a monk at Stavronikita Monastery.

Martyrdom

A longing for martyrdom seized him, and in March 1802 he set out for Mytilene with the blessing of the Athonite fathers. He presented himself to the judge of the city and confessed Christ boldly. Neither flattery nor threats moved him. On the way he met the metropolitan of Mytilene, kissed his hand and asked for his prayers, and his Turkish guards beat him mercilessly for it. Before the nazir he preached the faith in Christ and condemned the religion of Islam. After three days of delay, which led nowhere for his judges, the nazir pronounced the death sentence. On 23 March 1802 Luke was hanged at Mytilene. His body stayed three days on the gallows and was then thrown into the sea.

Bulgarian sources also count him among their saints, under the name Luke of Adrianople, and say that he was only sixteen when he died. According to the Greek source, part of his holy relics is kept at Stavronikita Monastery on the Holy Mountain. He is commemorated on 23 March, according to the calendar of the Church of Greece (new style).