New Martyr

The title of New Martyr or Neomartyr (Greek: νεο-, neo-, the prefix for "new"; and μάρτυς, martys, "witness") is conferred in some denominations of Christianity to distinguish more recent martyrs and confessors from the old martyrs of the persecution in the Roman Empire. Originally and typically, it refers to victims of Islamic persecution.^[1]

The earliest source to use the term neomartys is the Narrationes of Anastasius of Sinai, who died around 700. The title continued to be used for the next three hundred years to refer to victims of Umayyad and Abbasid persecution. It was mainly used in Greek sources, but is occasionally found in Arabic, Georgian and Syriac sources. Between the 11th and 14th centuries, the Byzantine–Seljuq wars also generated a number of neomartyrs.^[1]

The Greek Orthodox Church traditionally gives the title to those who had been tortured and executed during Ottoman rule in Greece in order to avoid forced conversion to Islam.^[2][3] This meaning is the dominant one, so much so that pre-Ottoman use of the term has been almost ignored in academia. Sectarian conflicts of the 19th century within the Ottoman Empire and Communist persecution in eastern Europe also generated saints considered neomartyrs.^[1]

List of new martyrs

Under Umayyad rule

• Euphemia of Damascus (before 700)^[1]
• Sixty Martyrs of Jerusalem (725)^[1]

Under Abbasid rule

• Elias of Heliopolis (779)^[1]
• Romanus (780)^[1]
• Theophilus the New (780s)^[1]
• Abo of Tbilisi (786)^[1]
• Bacchus-Ḍaḥḥāk (786/7)^[1]
• George-Muzāḥim (978)^[1]

Under Ottoman rule

The first new martyrs were recorded after the Seljuk invasion of Asia Minor (11th century).^[4] In the Orthodox Church, the third Sunday after Pentecost is known as the "Commemoration of All New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke."

Under Communist rule

In the Russian Orthodox Church, the Sunday closest to 25 January (7 February on the Gregorian Calendar) is the "Sunday of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia." The date of 25 January was chosen because that was the date in 1918 of the martyrdom of St. Vladimir (Bogoiavlensikii), Metropolitan of Kiev, who is referred to as the "Protomartyr of the communist yoke in Russia."

Under Nazism

• Alexander Schmorell, member of the White Rose Resistance group
• Bishop Gorazd of Prague
• Archimandrite Grigol Peradze
• Maria Skobtsova of Paris and Ravensbrück, nun

Serbia

The feast of "All New Martyrs of Serbia" is celebrated on 28 June [O.S. 15 June].

Boxer Rebellion

24 June  [O.S. 11 June] is celebrated as the feast of the "New Martyrs of China Slain During the Boxer Rebellion"

• Ia the Teacher
• Holy Martyrs of China

Austria-Hungary

• Hieromartyr Maximus Sandovic,^[7] 24August/6 September 1914

Post-Soviet Russia

• Daniel Sysoyev^[8][9] Muscovite priest and missionary assassinated by an Islamist militant
• Yevgeny Rodionov, a Russian soldier who fought in First Chechen War, was taken prisoner, tortured and eventually murdered for his refusal to convert to Islam^[10]

As of 2016 the Russian Orthodox Church has not glorified either of the martyrs listed above, but each has received widespread popular veneration.

See also

• Hieromartyr

References

Further reading

• Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, 341-43
• Sahner, Christian C. Christian Martyrs under Islam Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World. Princeton University Press, 2018.
• Vaporis, Rev. Nomikos Michael. Witnesses for Christ: Orthodox Christian Neomartyrs of the Ottoman Period 1437-1860

External links

• Calendar of Orthodox Church England contains NeoMartyrs
• Christian Greek orthodox Neomartyrs: A Case Study
• Russian New Martyrs and Confessors
• Neo-Martyrs of the Soviet regime
• Pravoslavie's Article on Neo-Martyr
• The shrine to the Great Purge