Venerable Martyr Damascene of Gabrovo

Life

He practiced asceticism at Hilandar, where he also became abbot. When he sought from certain Turks a debt owed to the monastery, they persuaded a Muslim woman to enter the house where Damascene was staying. Then those Turks came and found the woman there, and dragged Damascene before the qadi. Damascene was given a choice: either to be hanged, or to convert to Islam, to which he decisively replied: "It would be madness if I should purchase eternal destruction for a temporary life." He was hanged in the year 1771 in Svishtov. Thus Damascene sacrificed his body to save his soul. But God's punishment overtook his murderers immediately. They sat in a boat to cross the Danube, but by a sudden storm they were capsized and drowned.