Today our Church commemorates Saint Neo-martyr Anastasios of Epirus, who was sacrificed for Christ in 1750.
Because of his effective resistance to the Turks, who had attacked with immoral leanings Christian young women in his village, he was arrested and led to the local pasha, with the false accusation of promising to convert to Mohammedanism. Anastasios was subjected to many tortures in order to convert, but in all he showed indescribable patience. Eventually he was beheaded.
The two parallel narrations of the Martyrs we honour today are proof that the Christian Faith did not do great things exclusively in the early AD. centuries. Both at the time of the persecutions during the Roman period and at the time of the neo-martyrs of the Turkish occupation, to this day, and at every time and in every place, the Gospel continues to inspire and give birth to Saints and Martyrs, who, with their life and death for the love of Christ, become the guides of the resisting youth, and of every struggling man.
Every martyrdom suffered by Christians is the authentic evidence that faith in Christ is true and not a human construct or invention.
Source: Church of Cyprus
