Parthenius III of Constantinople

Saint Parthenius III, Hieromartyr, was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1656-1657. In 1657 he was charged with treason by the Ottoman sultan and hanged after refusing to renounce the Christian faith. The Church honours him as a new hieromartyr and remembers him on 24 March.

He was born on the island of Lesbos. He was Great Protosyncellus of the Patriarchate and, in November 1639, was elected metropolitan of Chios, in which capacity he wrote to Pope Urban VIII to declare submission. On 26 July 1656 he was elected Ecumenical Patriarch, succeeding Joannicius II, giving the sultan a gift of twenty-⁠five thousand reals. He was known for his piety, learning and honesty, and many hoped for reforms in church affairs. He sided with Russia in the dispute over the jurisdiction of the Church in Ukraine and, in 1656, denounced the Confession of Faith of 1643 of the former metropolitan of Kyiv, Petro Mohyla, which he deemed too close to Catholic teaching, although it had been approved by all the Greek-⁠speaking patriarchs as early as 1643 and was approved again in 1662 by Patriarch Nectarius of Jerusalem and by the Synod of 1672. He also held a solemn burial for the remains, found on a shore, of his predecessor, Cyril Lucaris, killed in 1638 on a ship in the Sea of Marmara and whose body had been thrown into the water.

To raise funds, Parthenius wrote letters to a Greek bishop in Russia, then a political enemy of the Ottoman Empire. The correspondence was intercepted and delivered to the Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, who decided that he should stand trial for treason. According to the Greek sources he had been slandered by the Jesuits and by the ruler of Wallachia, Constantine Șerban Basarab, as a Russian spy. Though the accusations were proven false, Sultan Mehmed IV ordered him hanged “to set an example for those who may try that in future.” The only way of release offered to him was pardon in exchange for converting to Islam, but Parthenius refused. On 24 March 1657, on Lazarus Saturday, a long procession led him from his prison to the “Gate of the Hook” (Parmak Kapı) in Constantinople, where he was hanged. He stayed hanged three days, then was thrown into the sea. His body was found by Christians and buried in the Kamariotissa monastery on the island of Chalki. He was numbered among the holy martyrs, and his memory is kept on 24 March.