MARIA, the good virgin and New Martyr, surnamed Methymopoula, was born of pious parents who were from the village of Kato Phourni in Merebellou County, Crete. She became the objective of an Albanian Turk, a land constable, who fell in love with her and attempted to entice her to marry him, thereby converting her to Islam. But whenever she encountered him, the most sensible and faithful maiden (faithful to the Faith of Christ) avoided him as if she saw a dreadful demon, even though that defiled one displayed kindness towards her and with flattery and promises of opulence and innumerable gifts attempted to lure her into loving him. On the contrary, the blessed one loathed him and his riches, as he was a savage and barbarous Turk.
However since that sinister and evil one attempted many times to convince her and failed, he decided to wreak his revenge upon her with the arms that he used as a constable. Therefore, on a certain day he espied her up a mulberry tree near the village collecting leaves for feeding the silkworms. He drew his weapon and fired at her. The bullet pierced her heart, which he could not subdue with his deception and flatteries. The blessed one fell from the tree, branch by branch, as a fowl downed by a hunter in the bush. Thus she landed dead, since she would not yield to the satanic lust of this inhuman Albanian.
These are the deeds and brave accomplishments of those heroic victims of Islam; albeit, the government did not even inquire into the wrongful act of this slaying in 1826.
* The present martyrdom is recorded as having occurred during the first few days of May; the precise date is unknown according to the Neon Martyrologion of Gerasimos Doukakis (Athens, 1905). Therefore our source, Metropolitan Matthew Lagges, has placed it on the 1st of May. It is to be noted, however, that the St. Herman Calendar places Saint Maria’s martyrdom on the 3rd of May [Translator’s note].
Archbishop Gregory P.O. Box 3177 Buena Vista, CO 81211-3177 USA Email: ArchbishopGregory@starband.net
Copyright 2005.
