Parthenius of Zographou

Saint Parthenius of Zographou, a venerable martyr, was one of the twenty-⁠six venerable martyrs of the Zographou Monastery on the Holy Mountain, Athos, killed by the Latins between 1274 and 1284 for refusing union with Rome.

In 1274 the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos concluded the union with Rome, but most Athonite monasteries refused to betray Orthodoxy and rebuked those who had betrayed it. For this the Holy Mountain was attacked by Latin troops and mercenaries who tortured many monks. The monastery of Zographou, inhabited by Bulgarians, was more exposed, because the emperor did not wish to offend the Greeks and vented his anger on monasteries of another nation.

Learning by miracle that the soldiers were approaching, Abbot Thomas warned the brethren: whoever wished to escape should flee, and whoever desired martyrdom should stay. Twenty-⁠six remained: Abbot Thomas, the monks Barsanuphius, Cyril, Micah, Simon, Hilarion, James, another James, Job, Cyprian, Sabbas, Martinian, Cosmas, Sergius, Menas, Joasaph, Ioannicius, Paul, Anthony, Euthymius, Domitian, Parthenius, and four laymen who worked at the monastery, whose names are not known. They shut themselves in the monastery tower.

When they arrived, the Latin soldiers set fire to the tower. While it burned, the martyrs sang psalms and the akathist to the Most Holy Mother of God, and so gave their souls into God's hands, on 10 October, between 1274 and 1284. Saint Parthenius is commemorated on 4 July (a movable date), in the new style, in the Synaxis of the Athonite Saints.