Holy Martyr Athanasius

Life

This martyr of Christ was a simple and poor man, but rich in faith and wise by the Spirit of God. Once he unintentionally entered into a dispute about the faith with a certain Turk. The Turk was educated and skillful with words, but Athanasius labored with all his strength to emphasize and confirm the truth and superiority of the Christian faith over the Muslim faith. In that they parted. The next day Athanasius was summoned before the court. This Turk stood there as his accuser. When the judge called upon Athanasius to renounce the faith of Christ and become a Turk, as he had supposedly declared before his traveling companion the day before, Athanasius cried out: "I would sooner accept a thousand deaths than renounce the faith of Christ!" For this he was condemned to death and beheaded in the year 1700 in Smyrna. His body was buried in the church of Saint Paraskeva in the same city.