Damascene of Gabrovo

The Holy New Hieromartyr Damascene of Gabrovo

New Martyr · Hieromartyr · Priest · b. Gabrovo, Bulgaria (Tarnovo diocese) — d. 1771, hanged at Svishtov

Damascene the New (†1771) was a Bulgarian hieromonk of the Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos, martyred at Svishtov on the Danube under the Ottoman yoke. Born in Gabrovo in the diocese of Tarnovo, he left home as a young man for Athos, where he was tonsured at the Serbian house of Hilandar, ordained deacon and priest, and in time made its igumen (abbot). Sent to Svishtov to collect the rents of property belonging to the monastery, he was entrapped by a Muslim debtor who, to escape payment, contrived a false accusation of immorality against him; though the judge himself doubted the charge, the perjured testimony of the accusers forced a conviction. Offered his life if he would embrace Islam, Damascene answered, "I was born a Christian, and I shall die a Christian," and was hanged on January 16, 1771. He is venerated among the new-martyrs of the Ottoman period, at Hilandar and in Bulgaria.

From Gabrovo to Hilandar

Damascene was born in the Bulgarian town of Gabrovo, in the diocese of Tarnovo, at a date not precisely recorded — early in the eighteenth century. Drawn to the monastic life while still young, he left his homeland for the Holy Mountain of Athos and entered the monastery of Hilandar, the great Serbian house of the Mountain long shared by Bulgarian and Serbian monks. There he was tonsured, passed through the obediences of the community, and was in course of time ordained deacon and then priest, becoming a hieromonk of proven life; the brotherhood at length chose him igumen, the abbot and head of the monastery. His governance falls in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, when the Athonite houses maintained themselves in part from estates and rents held in the Christian lands under Ottoman rule, and the collection of these dues fell to trusted senior monks.

Martyrdom at Svishtov

In the exercise of this duty Damascene was sent to Svishtov (Svistov), a town on the right bank of the Danube in northern Bulgaria, to collect rent owed on property belonging to Hilandar from a Muslim who held it. Unwilling to pay, the man devised a plot to be rid of the monk and his claim: he sent a Muslim woman into the room where Damascene was lodging, and then broke in with others and raised the cry that the monk had violated her — a capital charge for a Christian against a Muslim woman. Brought before the kadi (the Islamic judge), Damascene protested his innocence, and the judge himself did not believe the accusation; but the accusers pressed their perjured testimony, and under the law the judge was constrained to condemn him.

There remained the customary offer that alone could save a condemned Christian: that he renounce Christ and accept Islam. To this Damascene returned the confession that seals his memory — "I was born a Christian, and I shall die a Christian" — and would not be moved by any threat or promise. He was therefore led out and hanged at Svishtov on January 16, 1771, receiving the crown of the new-martyrs. The tradition adds that as his persecutors afterwards crossed the Danube by boat, a storm arose and the boat capsized, and they were drowned in the river — a stroke of divine justice such as the accounts of the new-martyrs often record.

Veneration

Damascene is numbered among the New Martyrs who, under the centuries of the Ottoman yoke, sealed their Orthodox confession with their blood rather than apostatise to Islam — the same company as Nicodemus, Cyprian, and the many Athonite and Balkan neomartyrs of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His memory is kept especially at Hilandar, his monastery, and in his native Bulgaria, on the day of his martyrdom, January 16.

Feast and commemoration

January 16 (church date; New Calendar civil January 16; Old Calendar civil January 29), kept with the Veneration of the Chains of the Apostle Peter. He is a Bulgarian and Athonite (Hilandar) commemoration, listed also by the OCA; he is styled Hieromartyr Damascene the New. As a saint of the eighteenth century his cultus is post-Byzantine and local rather than universal.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 4

Thy Martyr Damascene, O Lord, in his courageous contest hath received from thee, our God, a crown incorruptible; for possessed of thy might, he cast down the tyrants and utterly destroyed the powerless boldness of the demons. By his supplications, O Christ our God, save thou our souls.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

No storable public-domain image has been identified: as a saint of 1771 his icons are the work of modern iconographers and fall under living copyright (§8). Damascene is depicted as a monastic hieromartyr — in the mandyas or priestly epitrachelion, bearded, holding a cross and often a scroll of his confession, and sometimes shown with the noose of his hanging.