The region of Pelion in Magnesia gave a number of great personalities to the Church and our Nation in the dark years of the Turkish rule. That blessed and God-endowed place brought forth bright spiritual figures and saints, who contributed the most to our national cause and to the preservation of our orthodox faith. He also highlighted many New Martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for their witness to Christ and the saving truth of our Church. One of them was also Saint Neomartys Stamatios, a glorious soldier of Christ.
He was born in the middle of it 17th century at the village Agios Georgios Nileias of the enchanting Pelion, built at an altitude of 620 meters. The exact time of his birth is not known to us. But what we do know is that he was a scion of the great and famous family of Stamatopoulos. The villagers also point out to him the ruins of his ancestral home, and even point out a fountain, which bears the name "Fountain of Stamatopoulos" ή "Fountain of Agios Stamatios". This means that the memory of the saint remains alive among the pious inhabitants of his special homeland.
The process of collecting the heavy taxation of enslaved Roma from the high gate, that is, the Ottoman administration. The prefects of each region collected the taxes, which they handed over to a Turkish commissioner. So around 1680 a Turkish agha arrived in the region of Pelion to collect the sultan's taxes. He was an incredibly brutal and merciless man, who made unreasonable demands on the poor inhabitants. He demanded huge sums, which impoverished Christians could not afford.
The Peliorite Romans gathered and discussed how they would deal with the problem. They decided to send a delegation to Constantinople, to ask the Turkish administration to set fair and reasonable taxation. To lighten unaffordable taxes. At the head of the delegation they appointed the sensible and serious Stamatios.
When they arrived in Constantinople they went to the Sultan's palace and asked to see and speak to the vizier in charge, who represented the Sultan. They talked with him, explained the situation, that it was impossible for them to pay such a large tax. But their pleas fell on deaf ears. Not only did they not bring any positive result, but they angered the Ottoman officials, who cursed and abused them! They even ordered the guard to beat them severely!
Then Stamatios, as head of the delegation, dared, with bravery and impudence, to protest against the brutal treatment. He asked to be treated as human beings and not as animals. They came to find a solution to their problem and not as enemies. This, however, not only did not satisfy the vizier, but angered him more. She took his apologetic attitude as allegedly disrespectful to the Sultan and ordered him to be mercilessly beaten, flogged and threatened.
In order to take revenge on him, they made a dirty and baseless slander against him, that he was allegedly a Muslim and then he denied Islam and
became a Christian! This charge was very serious, because Islamic law (Sharia) provides for severe penalties for the "outsider" and death if he refuses to
converted to Islam. This slander was common when the Turks wanted revenge on a Roman. After accusing him, they arrested him, tied him up and led him to the vizier.
Stamatios stood before him with courage and bravery and assured the Turkish official that he had never been a Muslim. That he was born a Christian, remains a Christian and will remain a Christian until the end of his life.
The vizier became furious with his anger, and delivered him to the soldiers to be brought before the Turkish judge, who was competent to try him and decide on further proceedings. Again Stamatios, with courage and brashness, apologized that this is a slanderous platitude and that he had never been a Muslim. The pompous judge began to treat him with feigned kindness and urged him to convert to Islam in order to enjoy riches, glories and pleasures. But the heroic Martyr flatly refused his proposals, and assured him that it was vain to hope that he would ever deny Christ, the true God. Seeing his obstinacy, the judge ordered that he be locked up in prison and subjected to painful tortures every day, thinking that at some point he would change his mind and change his faith.
He remained for several days in the dark and damp prison, praying and patiently enduring the tortures and humiliations of the inhuman jailers. Then the vizier ordered him to be brought before him again, hoping that his intransigence had been bent. But Stamatios with more courage and mental strength confessed Christ and assured that he would not convert by any force. That his decision will not change no matter how many tortures are done to him!
The vizier, seeing that Stamatios remained unconvinced, sent him bound to the prefect, with orders to behead him. The wild soldiers dragged him, cursing and beating him to the prefect of the City, who was charged with the execution of the condemned. She led him in front of the palace, which was next to her Hagia Sophia and beheaded him. It was August 15, the day of the Virgin Mary, in the year 1680. His soul flew to the heavens and his honest body was received by the pious Christians of the City, which they buried with honors. His memory is commemorated on August 16. In the Holy Metropolis of Dimitrias, it is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
Asmatic sequence in his honor he composed at 1860 the monk Iakovos Kofos the Neo-Scythian. His testimonial was written by Saint Nicodemus the Saint on "New Testimony" of and the well-known scholar Ioannis Kariophyllis. The focus of his celebration is the village where he was born and lived, the Agios Georgios Nileias, Pelion, where there is a chapel in his honor. There is also a chapel in Holy Monastery of Taxiarchon Nileia, where a piece of the shrine of the relic is also kept. The glorious Neomartyr Stamatios is also honored in Evia and Chios.
photo https://www.impantokratoros.gr/730A1151.el.aspx
HOLY MONASTERY PANTOKRATOROS.GR
