Triantaphyllos the Martyr

Saint Triantaphyllos, new martyr, was born in 1663 in Zagora, then under Ottoman rule, and received the crown of martyrdom on 8 August 1680 at Constantinople. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 8 August by the old calendar, which is 21 August by the new, together with the new martyr Spas.

Triantaphyllos was working as a fisherman when he was taken captive by the Turks. He was tortured because he would not renounce the Christian faith and convert to Islam. In the end his captors beheaded him, when he was only seventeen years old.

A Serbian source says that Triantaphyllos and Spas were both of Serbian descent. Spas was from Radovish and suffered in the same way at Thessaloniki in 1794. Other sources regard Triantaphyllos as a Greek from Zagora, so his ethnic origin is not clear.

Both died young, confessing faith in Jesus Christ. They are commemorated together.