The 179 Venerable Martyrs of Mount Penteli

The 179 Venerable Martyrs of Mount Penteli were the monks of the Pantokrator monastery at Daou Penteli in Attica, killed by pirates on the day of Holy Pascha in 1680. At that time the monastery was a bulwark of Orthodoxy and of Greek national consciousness in Attica. A numerous and zealous brotherhood had gathered there, keeping up the divine services without interruption, day and night.

Among the workmen at the monastery was a man filled with hatred for the monks. On the night of Pascha he led a band of Algerian pirates into the monastery by a secret way. The fathers were standing at the service with lit candles, singing the hymns of the Resurrection. The robbers fell upon them and spared no one: they cut down one hundred and seventy-⁠nine monks with their sabres, and the monastery was flooded with blood. The pirates plundered the place and left.

Only one hieromonk survived, who had gone to the monastery's dependency at Gerotsakouli. He came back the next day, found the bodies of his brethren hacked to pieces, and buried them in a Christian manner.

For centuries the place where they lay stayed unknown. In September 1965, during the restoration of the monastery, the graves were found. The relics, which had lain in the earth for almost three hundred years, gave off a heavenly fragrance. On 14 August 1992 the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate numbered the 179 martyrs among the saints, and their relics were set out for veneration. The monastery has been restored as a convent, and the nuns and many pilgrims testify that blessings and healings flow from the holy relics.

On 13 April 2018, with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, their commemoration was added to the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church, where they are remembered on 23 April.