Stamatios of Volos

Holy New Martyr Stamatios of Volos was a Christian from the region of Volos, beheaded at Constantinople on 16 August 1680 after confessing his faith before the grand vizier. He is commemorated on 16 August.

He came from a village in the eparchy of Dimitrias, near Volos, called Agios Georgios. Once an agha came into the area to collect the poll tax and oppressed the Christians terribly; the villagers decided to send a delegation to the Sublime Porte in Constantinople to seek justice, and Stamatios was among the delegates. The grand vizier, a friend of the tax collector, drove them out with blows. Some of them, among them the saint, protested loudly against the injustice.

Then some Turkish officials, friends of the agha, picked him out of the group and took him to the vizier, falsely testifying that Stamatios had become a Turk and was now posing as a Christian. The saint denied the charge. The judge told him: "If you have not become one, become one now," and he answered in a loud voice that he would not be so foolish as to deny his Christ and that he would rather die than live in pleasures and glory.

The vizier tried flattery, promises, honours and rank, even promising him the post of adjutant, to turn him from his resolve, but the saint confessed again that his wealth, glory and honour was Christ. Thrown into prison and tortured, he was brought before the vizier once more and remained unmoved. Handed over to the city prefect, he was beheaded on Monday, 16 August 1680, in front of the imperial palace, near Hagia Sophia.

An account of his martyrdom was written in the same year, 1680, by the Athonite monk Jacob and is found in a codex of Vatopedi Monastery. A small portion of his relics is kept at the Monastery of the Taxiarchs on Pelion.