Venerable Martyr Gedeon

Life

Gedeon was by origin a Greek from very poor parents. In his youth Gedeon was forcibly converted to Islam. Repentant, Gedeon fled to the Holy Mountain, where in the monastery of Karakalou Gedeon received the monastic rank. Desirous of martyrdom for Christ, Gedeon took the blessing of his spiritual father and went to that place where Gedeon had been converted to Islam, and publicly before the Turks confessed the Christian faith and reviled Muhammad as a false prophet. The Turks shaved his head, placed Gedeon backwards on a donkey and led him through the city. But Gedeon rejoiced at that mockery for Christ's sake. Afterward they cut off with an axe all his fingers on hands and feet, as once to Saint James the Persian (see November 27), and finally they cast Gedeon into a privy where Gedeon gave up his soul to the holy God, in the year 1818 in the town of Turnovo in Thrace. His wonderworking relics rest in the church of the Holy Apostles in the village of Turnovo, and a portion of his relics is found in the monastery of Karakalou.