† nicolas barnel † @nicolasbarnel - Twitter Profile

14 days ago

🇦🇲✝️🇬🇷 "Convert or die." That is the timeless ultimatum of #Christianophobia. This rare footage captures the #Greek Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna alive, just before he faced that exact choice. During the #Armenian and #Greek Genocides, millions of Christians refused to turn away from Christ. Priests, bishops, and everyday believers chose the Cross and their people over their own lives. Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna, spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox community, stayed when Smyrna fell in 1922. He sought to aid Greeks and Armenians alike. He refused to abandon his flock. After celebrating the Divine Liturgy he was seized, handed over by Nureddin Pasha to a mob, and subjected to prolonged torture: his beard was torn out, his eyes gouged, his ears and nose cut off. He died from his wounds. He was declared a martyr and a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. During the Armenian Genocide of 1915, Very Reverend Father Megerditch Tchelghadian was a prominent Armenian priest and Prelate of the Khnous district in Western Armenia. He was arrested by Ottoman authorities and thrown into a dungeon, where he endured brutal physical torture for 40 days for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. Remaining completely steadfast, he was ultimately brought to the public marketplace and burned alive. Saint Ignatius Maloyan, Armenian Catholic Archbishop of Mardin, was arrested, tortured, and repeatedly refused conversion to Islam. He declared he would live and die loyal to his faith. He was shot; his last words were reported as: "My God, have mercy on me! Into Your hands I commend my spirit." he is among the saints to be canonized on October 19, 2025 by Pope Leo XIV. Archimandrite Armenian Psak Der Khorenian, spiritual leader in the Kharberd region, was among those whose convoy was attacked; eyewitness accounts record that several clergy and detainees were doused in fuel and burned alive. Saint Euthymios of Zela, the last resident Eastern Orthodox Greek bishop of the historic Diocese of Zela in Western Pontus, remained with his people during the Greek Genocide. He was imprisoned, tortured, and died in custody in 1921. He was numbered among the chorus of the Saints by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece Saint Ambrosios of Moschonisia, a Greek Orthodox metropolitan, refused to abandon his flock when Turkish Nationalist forces overran his diocese. On or around September 15, 1922, he was tortured and buried alive alongside his local clergy and civilian flock. During the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe, Turkish Nationalist forces advanced into the Thyatira (Akhisar) area and trapped approximately 500 Greek Christians who had sought refuge inside a local church. The soldiers locked all the exits from the outside and deliberately set the building on fire, burning the entire congregation alive. It is impossible to list them all. Every village had a church; every church had a priest. Hundreds of clergy and countless lay believers were killed with their people. They shed their blood. They kept the faith.

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† nicolas barnel †

@nicolasbarnel

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