In the years of the mid-seventeenth century(1665-1680) a boy was born in Zagora, a village near the city of Volos, in northern Greece, named Triantafyllos (pronounced ‘tree-an-ta-fee-los’, means:”rose”). During these times, the Greeks suffered greatly under the domination of the Muslim Ottoman Turks. There were many times during which the Ottomans would provoke the Christians for no other reason than to give them an excuse for killing them, unless they agreed to convert to Islam.
At the age of fifteen, working as a fisherman in Constantinople, Triantafyllos was taken and arrested. In confusion he questioned why he was being taken away for he had done nothing wrong. He was given no response and they dragged him to the authorities. There, he was pressured to renounce Christ
He finally figured out that this was the only reason for his arrest He remained firm and refused to leave his Lord Jesus Christ no matter what they did to him. He told them that they could torture him until he could no longer stand, even kill him, but that he would never renounce Jesus.
It was on August 8th in the year 1680 that those merciless Muslims brought Triantafyllos to his martyr’s death (in the Hippodrome in Constantinople). God rewarded his sacrifice and, as a message to those who remained, his holy relics exuded a beautiful fragrance—a sign of blessedness.
Feast Day: August 8
The Church of Saint Triantafyllos in Zagora, Greece
