Saint Constantine of Hydra lived in the years of Ottoman rule. He was born and raised on the heroic island of Hydra. His parents were most pious Orthodox Christians and they nurtured him with the laws of faith and love towards Christ and his country.
The poverty and lack of work on the island forced him,
despite the objections of his mother, to travel to Rhodes, to work towards
securing the future and to help his home.
He was honest and hardworking, and because of this,
everyone loved him. Some friends introduced him to the Turkish governor of
Rhodes, Hassan Kapitan, who gave him a job in his seraglio. He groomed Hasan
Bey’s horse and did various other jobs always willingly.
At a great gathering, Constantine got drunk and Hassan
Kapitan asked the Hodjas to have a sounneti, in other words, to circumcise him,
and put on him the white turban, giving him the name of the governor, Hassan.
When he woke up the next morning he realized what had happened, but it was
difficult to react immediately. His concern grew when having sent his mother
money with someone, she heard that he had changed his faith, and in utter
bitterness, she threw away the money, locked her house, and cried day and
night, inconsolable for what happened to her child.
In Rhodes again all his friends distanced themselves
from him and were sorry because they saw him as a Janissary.
He went to Hydra to see his mother and as he
approached his family home he asked for a drink of water from a woman in the
neighborhood which she gave him, but as soon as she stepped away from him she
broke the container that touched his lips. Arriving at the house he knocked on
the door and to his mother’s question as to who it was he replied, “I am your
son Hasan who has arrived from Rhodes." With a voice twisted in pain, she
replied: “I’m not opening to you. I don’t have any son Hassan. I only have a
son Constantine.”
Only God knows the sorrow and pain of the young man
from Hydra. Without losing time he returned to Rhodes and directly went to
Rodini where in a cave an Elder lived in asceticism. Kneeling in front of his
feet he confessed his sin and the Spiritual Father gave him forgiveness and the
appropriate advice on what he should do thereafter.
He threw away the turban and Turkish clothes and
taking a boat he first went to Crimea and then to Constantinople, where the
Holy Ethnomartyr Patriarch Gregory V advised him to go to Mount Athos and stay
there forever.
Having remained in the Monastery of the Iveron living
with much repentance, prayer, and ascesis, and having taken the monastic
schema, with the permission of the abbot he returned to Rhodes with the firm
decision to go to Hassan Capitan and told him that he was a Christian and as a
Christian he would die.
The blessed hour arrived. He went in front of his
former boss, the terrible governor of Rhodes, Hassan. With faith and
indescribable courage, he said: "Hassan Bey I am your servant Constantine
from Hydra who you fraudulently made a Muslim. I return you your false religion
and tell you that I am a Christian and a Christian I will die.” Hassan was in a
daze. Seeing Constantine throwing the Muslim turban to the flies he was
incredibly angry and rushed at Constantine hitting him with fists and kicks. In
the palace of the Knights was a dark basement which was called the prison of
Zyntantou. Zintani in Turkish means darkness. There they began to terribly
torture him day and night. In the end, they tied him to a tree trunk putting
his feet in two holes. He endured all with unceasing prayer. One night the jail
shined with a heavenly light and his feet were freed from the locks. Turkish
and Christian prisoners admired him.
After five months they brought him again before the
Turkish commander and having the same faith and courage he again confessed the
Christian faith and was returned to prison. On 14 November 1800, by order of
the Sultan, Constantine suffered a martyr's death by hanging, which according
to some took place at Kolona, and according to others at Mandraki. He kissed
his small Cross and prayed, and when the executioner went to get Constantine he
threw him on a plane tree so that he not fall into profane hands. Constantine
was 30 years old when he was hung on the plane tree. Turks and Christians
relate that on that night when Constantine was martyred a great bright Cross
shone with its light on the plane tree. The next year a strong tornado tore
down the plane tree and after a short time, the commander Hassan Bey died from
a bad illness.
The then Bishop of Rhodes Agapios and the clergy of
Rhodes sought the holy relics of Constantine and buried them with great honors
behind the Church of the Entrance of the Theotokos in Niochori. Later the
marble plaque that was placed above the Saint’s grave by his fellow countryman
Constantine Kafas was uncovered and today is in the wall of the same church:
"This is the tomb of the Holy Neomartyr
Constantine Nydriotis, placed by Constantine Kafa of Hydra.”
This was written by the Saint’s fellow countryman on
his grave. After three years the Saint’s mother came to Rhodes and took the
relics of her son with her with a permission letter from the Metropolitan of
Rhodes Agapios and transferred it to Hydra, placing it in the Monastery of
Panagia where it remains to this day in a golden reliquary. The then Priest of
Niochoriou Papagiannis kept the ulna of the arm of the Martyr which is
preserved in a silver reliquary to this day in the altar of the Church. After a
century the Ecumenical Patriarch officially ranked Constantine among the choirs
of the Holy Neomartyrs and ordered that his memory be celebrated on the 14th of
November, the day he was hanged.
No comments:
Post a Comment