Theodore of the Dardanelles

Saint Theodore of the Dardanelles, new martyr, was an Orthodox martyr of the Dardanelles, executed at Çanakkale in the year 1690 because he refused to convert to Islam. He died on 2 August 1690, and the Orthodox Church commemorates him on 2 August.

He was born in the village of Renkioi, near the ancient city of Ophryneion on the Dardanelles, to parents named George and Kyriaki. As a young man he moved to the city of Çanakkale, where he worked in sesame oil production. Narratives about his life state that a wealthy local Turk sought to have Theodore marry his daughter on the condition that he convert to Islam. Theodore declined, and when he later became ill, the man claimed to heal him in exchange for a promise of conversion. Theodore was accused of failing to keep the promise, and he was subsequently imprisoned and subjected to torture.

Hagiographical accounts also describe that while in prison he was visited secretly by a priest who administered the Holy Communion, and that he reported being sustained by a miraculous light. Other accounts add that he was confined in a lime pit and paraded through the city. On 2 August 1690 he was beheaded in front of the French consulate in Çanakkale.

His body was at first buried in a church courtyard in Çanakkale. In 1773 the church was burned in the Russo-⁠Turkish wars, but his relics survived. During the expulsion of the Greek population in 1922, refugees led by Father Constantine Oikonomou brought his skull to Greece, where it was placed in the church of Saint Xeni in Nicaea, Piraeus, where it is venerated to this day.