Paul of Zographou

Saint Paul of Zographou, a venerable martyr, was one of the twenty-⁠six monks killed at the Zographou Monastery on Mount Athos between 1274 and 1284 by Latin troops, because they would not accept union with Rome. The Azbyka page names him only in the list of monks.

After the union of Lyons in 1274, concluded by the emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, most Athonite monasteries refused to betray Orthodoxy. The Holy Mountain was then overrun by Latin troops and mercenaries, and Zographou, the monastery of the Bulgarians, was more exposed. Abbot Thomas, learning by miracle that the soldiers were approaching, let the brethren choose: those who wished to live could flee, and those who wished for martyrdom could stay. Twenty-⁠six remained, among them the monk Paul, and shut themselves in the monastery tower. When the soldiers set fire to the tower, they sang psalms and the akathist to the Mother of God until they gave up their souls to God, on 10 October.

Saint Paul is commemorated on 4 July (a movable date), in the Synaxis of the Athonite Saints, in the new style.