Eikon

Hilarion of Saint Anne's

The Holy New-Martyr Hilarion of the Skete of Saint Anne, Mount Athos

Venerable Martyr · New Martyr · b. Heraklion, Crete — d. 20 September 1804, Constantinople

Commemorated 20 September — New-martyrdom at Constantinople after the Athonite preparation at Saint Anne's

Hilarion (†1804), in the world John of Heraklion in Crete, is one of the Athonite-prepared new-martyrs: a merchant's clerk in Constantinople who, falsely accused of theft and abandoned in his trouble, denied Christ under pressure of the Sultan's court — and within twelve days was fleeing his denial. Ten months in the Crimea, the counsel of elders, and the long school of Athos followed: at Iviron, then at the Skete of Saint Anne under the elder Bessarion, he was tonsured Hilarion and formed by a rule of strict fasting for the purpose the skete's fathers knew well — the return to the place of denial. On 20 September 1804, at Constantinople, he publicly renounced Islam and confessed Christ; tortured until, the account says, all his bones were broken, he was beheaded, receiving — as the Athonite tradition writes of his company — two crowns, of ascesis and of martyrdom.

The fall

John was born at Heraklion in Crete, one of six children of Francis and Katherine, and lettered by them. Sent young into trade, he served as a merchant's clerk in Constantinople; there a false accusation of theft broke him — his own uncle abandoned him — and in his desperation, worked on by the officials of the Sultan's court, he professed Islam. Twelve days the denial lasted before guilt drove him out: he fled to the Crimea, and for ten months lived with his remorse.

Athos and the preparation

The path of the repentant, worn smooth by a century of new-martyrs, led him to the elders Symeon and Jeremiah, and then to the Holy Mountain: first Iviron, then the Skete of Saint Anne, where the elder Bessarion took him. Saint Anne's was by 1800 the acknowledged school of the martyr-preparation — the aleiptai, the "anointers," trained the resolved penitent in fasting, vigil and the prayer, testing whether the desire for the martyr's return was of God. Bessarion gave John a rule of strict ascesis, and in time the tonsure with the name Hilarion.

The martyrdom

Judged ready, he sailed with his elder's blessing for Constantinople, and before the court where he had denied, he declared the denial void and Christ his God. The Aga's men tortured him with a thoroughness the account preserves in one line — all his bones were broken — and on 20 September 1804 he was beheaded. The Athonite fathers entered him in their books as crowned twice, ascetic and martyr; his memory is kept at Saint Anne's among the skete's new-martyrs, the company his own preparation completed.

Feast and commemoration

September 20 (church date; Old Calendar civil October 3) — the day of his martyrdom, shared with the great-martyr Eustathius and, in the Russian books, with Michael of Chernigov and Oleg of Briansk. He falls under the common of a venerable-martyr (see references/common-readings.md).

Iconography

Hilarion is depicted as a young Athonite new-martyr: in the monastic cap and mantle of the sketes, holding the cross of martyrdom and often the palm, sometimes with the severed head's wound shown or the instruments of his torture; in the composite icons of the Athonite new-martyrs he stands among the company of Saint Anne's. No pre-1900 image identified to him has been located; the entry is listed among the wanted icons.

Sources

  1. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, September 20 — "Monastic Martyr Hilarion of Saint Anne Skete, Mount Athos" (consulted live): Heraklion, the clerk's fall at Constantinople and the twelve days, the Crimea, the elders Symeon and Jeremiah, Iviron and Saint Anne's under Bessarion, the tonsure, and the beheading of 20 September 1804 with the two crowns.
  2. The Athonite new-martyrologies (the tradition of Nikodemos the Hagiorite and his continuators) — the Saint Anne's preparation and the company of the skete's martyrs.