Raphael

Holy Hieromartyr Raphael, also called Raphael of Lesbos, was born in 1410 at Mylos on the island of Ithaca, and he was killed by the Turks in 1463 in the monastery at Thermi on the island of Lesbos. His relics were discovered in 1959.

From soldier to monk

His name in the world was George Laskaris, or Laskarides, son of Dionysios. Before becoming a cleric, he made a career in the Byzantine army and reached a high rank. At thirty-⁠five he met an ascetic and venerable elder, John, who drew him to the life in Christ. One Christmas the elder came down from the place of his struggle to hear the confessions of the soldiers and give them communion, and he preached the word of God. At the next Theophany, when the elder went back to the wilderness, the officer George bade farewell to the soldiers and followed him. He was tonsured a monk, ordained a priest, and honoured with the rank of archimandrite and protosyncellus.

According to later revelations, Raphael was sent by the Ecumenical Patriarch to the West, to Morlaix in France, and preached the Gospel in Athens on Philopappos hill. Around 1450 he was living in Macedonia as a monk, and beside him, as a disciple, was Nicholas, who was ordained a deacon.

Martyrdom on Lesbos

After the fall of Constantinople, for fear of persecutions, Raphael fled with his companions from the port of Alexandroupolis to Mytilene. They settled in the old monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God on the hill of Karyes near the village of Thermi, which had once been a women's monastery. Raphael was elected abbot. In 1463 Lesbos fell into the hands of the Turks, who raided the monastery and seized Raphael and Nicholas. Raphael was dragged by the hair and beard, hung from a tree, beaten, pierced with weapons heated in fire and finally cut with a saw. Nicholas died under torture, bound to a tree.

With them suffered Irene, a girl of twelve, the daughter of Basil, a leading man of Thermi, and several faithful of her village. The martyrdom took place on Tuesday of Bright Week, 9 April 1463.

Discovery of the relics

In 1959, an excavation at Thermi uncovered the tomb of an unknown person. Through repeated visions it was shown to be the tomb of Raphael. The tomb of Nicholas was found on 13 June 1960. The head and most of the relics of Raphael are kept at the Monastery of Saint Raphael at Thermi, in Mytilene. He is commemorated on the Tuesday of Bright Week.