Theophanes of Constantinople

Holy Martyr Theophanes of Constantinople died for Christ in the year 1588, after he had for a time fallen away from the faith. He was young and inexperienced when the Turks drew him into Islam. Soon he realized his ruinous error, hid from those who had deceived him and entered monastic life, so as to atone by severe struggle for his brief departure from the faith of his fathers.

Even so, nothing could quiet the reproaches of his conscience, and he resolved to seek reconciliation with himself through martyrdom. He returned to Constantinople, where he had lived, and was soon recognized there by the Turks, who seized him and brought him before a judge, testifying that Theophanes, a Muslim, was passing himself off as a Christian. The voluntary martyr said firmly that he was a Christian and would not deny his faith.

Seeing the crowd in an uproar, the judge condemned him to death. The Turks then fell upon him and beat him savagely, cut strips of skin from his back in the shape of a cross, cut off his ears and nose and hung him on a high pole, trying to make him renounce again. The young man's firmness stayed unshaken. Losing patience, the fanatics threw him onto a kind of iron grate with sharp spikes pointing upward, and Theophanes, torn by them, gave his soul to God, cleansed by repentance and suffering.

The saint is commemorated on 21 June. The Azbyka page notes that he is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Church.