Michael Mavroeidis

Holy New Martyr Michael Mavroeidis lived and suffered in the year 1493 at Adrianople, in Thrace (now Edirne). The Church commemorates him on 17 February.

Michael was one of the notable and wealthy inhabitants of Adrianople. He was slandered by fanatical Turks before the judge of the city that he had despised the name of their god, Allah. At first he was cleared of every charge. But the slanderers threatened the judge that they would denounce him to the sultan. Out of fear, the judge ordered Michael imprisoned. There he was tormented to make him renounce the Christian faith and accept Islam, but he remained unshaken in his faith, although the judge tried to make him change his mind by flattery. In the end his head was cut off on 17 February, at the end of the fifteenth century (one source mentions the year 1490), and his honoured body was burned.

He is mentioned as patron of confectioners, because of his trade as a bread seller, and elsewhere of bakers. The commemoration of the holy new martyr Michael Mavroeidis of Adrianople is kept at the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Saints Theodore at Orestiada, where a part of his holy relics is also kept. Another part is kept at the Metropolitan Church of Komotini, and a chapel of his is at the Monastery of Venerable Maximus Kausokalybites in Rhodope.