Saint Dionysius the Martyr

St Dionysius the Martyr was sent as a monk of the Monastery to Crete in 1822, accompanying the sacred relic of the Girdle of the Theotokos, since an epidemic was raging on the island. Since, however, this was the time when the Greek Revolution had broken out in Crete, they arrested Dionysius and held him, together with others, hostage, trying to persuade him to embrace Islam. When he refused, the Turks tortured him by piercing his temples with a red-hot spit. When they realised that in spite of this terrible torture, he was unyielding and firm in his faith, they put him to death by hanging, on ‘Clean Monday’, the first day of Lent¹³.