Saint Triantafyllos

In the years of the mid-seventeenth century a boy was born in the city of Volos, in northern Greece, named Triantafyllos (pronounced ‘tree-an-ta-fee-los’). During these times, the Greeks suffered greatly under the domination of the Moslem Turks. There were many times during which the Turkish people would provoke the Christians for no other reason than to give them an excuse for killing them, unless they agreed to covert to Islam.

At the age of fifteen, working as a fisherman, 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 Turks brought Triantafyllos to his martyr’s death. God rewarded his sacrifice and, as a message to those who remained, his holy relics exuded a beautiful fragrance—a sign of blessedness.