New Martyr
Holy New Martyr Akylina of Zagliveri
✓ Comprehensive Orthodox source review completed
The eighteen-year-old of Zagliveri who resisted coercion, confessed Christ through three interrogations and was crowned in 1764.
Core account checked against Orthodox Church in America — New Martyr Aquilina, Orthodox Church in America — Troparion and Kontakion, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Digital Chant Stand — September 27. Additional ecclesiastical references appear below.
Life and Witness
A Christian Daughter of Zagliveri
The Holy New Martyr Akylina was born in Zagliveri, near Thessaloniki, in the eighteenth century. She was raised by a devout Orthodox mother in the diocese then known as Ardamerion. Her father, after killing a Turkish neighbor in a quarrel, accepted Islam in order to escape execution. Akylina and her mother, however, remained Christians.
The Church does not conceal the father's grave sin, fear or apostasy. Nor does it transfer his guilt to his daughter. Akylina's witness is remembered precisely because, while still a young woman and under severe family and political pressure, she freely refused to abandon Christ.
Her Father's Pressure and Her Mother's Counsel
When Akylina reached the age of eighteen, her father repeatedly urged her to become Muslim. Her mother strengthened her privately, reminding her that no earthly threat could outweigh fidelity to Christ. Akylina answered that she would neither change her faith nor deny the Lord who had given His life for her.
At last her father handed her over to the Ottoman authorities. The popular video title says that she was 'betrayed by her father'; the fuller ecclesiastical account explains the tragedy: a father who had himself apostatized under fear became an instrument of coercion against his own child.
Three Interrogations and the Crown of Martyrdom
The judge and officials promised gifts and an honorable marriage if Akylina would convert. When persuasion failed, they beat her repeatedly. After each assault she was returned to the judge and asked again to renounce Christ. She remained steadfast through three interrogations and increasingly brutal beatings.
Mortally wounded, Akylina was carried back to her mother's house. She asked whether she had kept her promise to Christ; her mother embraced her and gave thanks for her constancy. The saint surrendered her soul to God on September 27, 1764. The Orthodox account reports a heavenly fragrance from her body and a light at her grave as ecclesiastical testimony surrounding her burial.
Relics, Shrine and the 2012 Discovery
Akylina was buried near Zagliveri, and her memory remained alive in the local Church. In 2012 ecclesiastical and local tradition associated the discovery of holy relics at Ossa with the New Martyr. Their reception renewed public devotion to her and strengthened the pilgrimage connected with her native region.
This page states that modern discovery with the proper qualification. It is a claim received and celebrated in local Orthodox tradition, not a laboratory proof of every detail in the eighteenth-century life. Likewise, graces reported by pilgrims are offered as testimonies of faith, never as substitutes for medical care or historical documentation.
Feast, Hymnography and Spiritual Meaning
Saint Akylina is commemorated on September 27. The Greek Orthodox calendar for that day gives the principal liturgical place to the Martyr Callistratus and the forty-nine martyrs with him, while also explicitly listing the New Martyr Akylina, who died in 1764. Her video is therefore presented as a featured secondary commemoration rather than replacing the day's primary feast.
Her life speaks especially to Christians facing coercion within the family or society. The Church honors neither defiance for its own sake nor hostility toward another people or religion. It honors a young woman who preserved conscience, forgave suffering and confessed Christ without hatred.
Source-Critical Summary
The stable Orthodox core is that Akylina was born at Zagliveri; her father converted to Islam after a killing; her Christian mother formed her in the faith; at eighteen she refused repeated demands to convert; she was delivered to the authorities, beaten and died at home on September 27, 1764. These elements are shared by the official OCA life and the Greek ecclesiastical tradition derived from Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite.
Exact speeches, the sequence of individual blows, signs at the grave and later miracle accounts belong to hagiographical and local ecclesiastical testimony. They are identified as such. The 2012 relic discovery is not used to sensationalize her martyrdom, and the historical Ottoman setting is described soberly without anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Biographical information on this page is based exclusively on the Orthodox ecclesiastical sources listed below.
Orthodox Church in America — New Martyr AquilinaOrthodox Church in America — Troparion and KontakionGreek Orthodox Archdiocese Digital Chant Stand — September 27Mystagogy Resource Center — Saint Akylina the New MartyrHoly Monastery of Pantokrator — Saint Akylina