The holy New Hieromartyr Gregory the Fifth, Patriarch of Constantinople.
The holy Hieromartyr Gregory V was born George Angelopoulos in Demetsana, a village of Arcadia in the Peloponnesus, in the year 1745. In 1765, at the age of twenty, he went to Athens for two years of study, then sailed to Smyrna where he attended theological school. The Megas Synaxaristes states that he was tonsured Gregory at the Monastery of Strophada, presumably that on the island of Zakynthos, and after some time went to Patmos, where he studied theology and philosophy. Returning to Smyrna, he was ordained deacon and later priest and finally, in 1785, Metropolitan of Smyrna, in which position he served for twelve years. He distinguished himself by his diligence in rebuilding the cathedral of Saint Photine, in founding churches and schools, and in providing for poor students and anyone in need. He was deeply beloved by the people for this, and also for his unfeigned humility. Once, in an attempt to reconcile some of the faithful who were at odds with each other, he was misled by those in the wrong; upon seeing that he had made a mistake, he proceeded to his cathedral, spoke of the need for unity and concord and, while wearing his episcopal vestments and with tears in his eyes, he confessed his mistake and asked the forgiveness of all.
In 1797 he was elected Patriarch of Constantinople amidst political instability and intrigue. The desire of the Greek people for freedom from Ottoman rule was intensified by the French Revolution and the ideals disseminated by its supporters; the threat of Russian power coming to the assistance of their fellow Orthodox increased the suspicions of the Ottomans against the Greeks and against Gregory as their leader; and the envy of some of his own clergy whom his strictness of life reproached caused them to slander him to the Turks. He served as Patriarch for only a year and a half before being exiled to Mount Athos in 1798. The exile, the first of three, lasted eight years, and was a cause of joy rather than grief to the Patriarch. Since he was an ascetic and a man of prayer, he rejoiced in the opportunity to devote himself to cultivating his inner life, and to visiting the Athonite ascetics and hermits and conversing with them. During his exiles to the Holy Mountain he also counselled young men who had denied Christ and he encouraged them in their training for the path of martyrdom.
When he was permitted to return to his throne in Constantinople, he exerted all his strength in nurturing his flock and protecting them not only from the Ottoman oppressors but from the Protestant European powers. In 1807 Saint Gregory led the Christians of Constantinople in assisting the Ottomans to reinforce the city walls against an attack of the British fleet. We quote from an English life of Patriarch Gregory, “It must be remembered that if the British demands for the annulment of the alliance [between Turkey and France] had been met, Turkey would have been immeasurably weakened, perhaps to the point of dissolution. This is what the patriarch feared, for if Greece were to fall into the hands of the greedy Protestant European powers, it would probably be partitioned among them, destroying forever any hope of a united free Greece. Also the survival of Orthodoxy would be endangered by a zealous invasion of Protestant missionaries, who still viewed the Orthodox as little more than well-intentioned heathens.”
On March 25, 1821, revolution was declared by the Peloponnesians, countrymen of Patriarch Gregory, against the Ottoman Empire. Despite all the discretion he had shown in his tenure as Patriarch, attempting to cool the excessive zeal of the Greeks desiring independence, both to preserve the Christians from reprisals, and to allow the movement for independence to mature adequately before engaging with the Ottomans, it was impossible for Saint Gregory to escape the fury of Sultan Mahmud II. On the Sunday of Pascha, April 10, 1821, when the Patriarch was 76 years old, he was arrested and tortured, being asked the names of the leaders of the revolution, and offered his freedom if he became a Moslem. He refused both, and was hanged from the central gate of the Patriarchate. We quote the Anglican minister R. Walsh, an eyewitness of his death:
“The old man was then dragged under the gateway, where the cord was passed through the staple that fastened the folding doors, and left to struggle in his robes with the agonies of death. His person, attenuated by abstinence and emaciated by age, had not weight sufficient to cause immediate death. He continued for a long time in pain, which no friendly hand dared to abridge, and the darkness of night came on before his last convulsions were over. His two diacres [deacons], or chaplains, were dragged to other doorways of the patriarchate, where they were hanged in a similar manner. Athanasius of Nicomedia, with the bishops of Ephesus and Anchialos, were hauled through the streets with ropes about their necks, and hanged in different parts of the Fanal [the Phanar – the district of Constantinople where the Patriarchate is located]; while those of Derkon, Salonichi, Tornovo, and Adrianople, with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, were cast into the dungeons of the Bostandjee bashi, to await their doom.
“The body of the Patriarch was suffered to remain suspended at the doorway, so that every one who went in and out was compelled to push it on one side. Among the rest who had occasion to pass was the unfortunate person appointed to succeed to his dangerous eminence. He was led to the patriarchate by the hand of a chouash; and while bringing him through, and removing the body, the Turk bade him look on it, and take warning by the fate of his predecessor. He was a timid, nervous man, and did not long survive his elevation. It was generally supposed that the shock he received at this brutal exhibition was the proximate cause of his death.
“Whenever the Turks intend anything particularly insulting and contemptuous to Christians, the Jews are made the instruments. Balata, the Jews’ quarter, was immediately in the rear of the Fanal, so they took from this district some of the meanest and basest they could find even among the degraded populace. The Greeks had humbly begged the body of the venerable head of their church to inter it decently, when the period of its exposure was past; but this was denied them. The body was taken down at the end of three days, and the rope by which it was suspended was put into the hands of those Jewish chiffûts, who were ordered to drag it by the neck down to the water. The distance was not far, but the way was through a very dirty market, where offals of all kinds were lying about in foul masses. Through these they drew it with gratuitous insult, exulting, as it were, in the detestable employment in which they were engaged; and after defiling the body in every way, it was cast into the harbour, where the waters closed over it. The conduct of the Jews on this occasion was considered as an indication of the deadly hatred they bore Christians, by thus treating the Oriental head of that church which had subverted their own; but it is probable that the creatures chosen for the purpose were incapable of sense or feeling on such a subject; they were as ignorant as they were abject – they acted under the impressions of terror and stupidity, and any exultation they showed was to gratify their more brutal and ferocious masters.
“But the end was defeated, and that burial which the Turks denied was accorded to the Patriarch. In a few days after, a rumour of a miracle was spread abroad, that the body was found in the Euxine Sea. When, after a certain time, it became buoyant from putrescence, it floated out of the harbour, and the current of the Bosphorus would naturally carry it, as it did every other, into the Sea of Marmora. It was reported, however, to have been first discovered floating in the Black Sea, where it could not have been carried in the ordinary course of things. Wherever it was originally taken out of the water, it was certainly recognized as the remains of the Patriarch. It was brought to Odessa, where it was received with profound respect and veneration by the Greek residents and fugitives who then filled the town, and buried with all the pomp of the Greek and Russian churches united.”
A Residence at Constantinople, by the Rev. R. Walsh, London: Frederick Westley and A.H. David, 1836, Vol. I, pp. 315–17.
The holy Patriarch’s body had not floated “from putrescence” as the Rev. Walsh supposed, but by the power of God. A heavy stone had been tied to his body when it was cast into the sea, which no amount of natural bloating would have been able to counteract; and when it arrived at Odessa, a month after his martyric death, it was found to be incorrupt. In 1871 Emperor Alexander III acceded to the request of the Greeks and granted the holy Patriarch’s relics to be returned to Greece, where they were enshrined in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens.
The English life mentioned above, by the late Metropolitan Anthony Gavalas while still a priest, was printed in New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke, Saint Nectarios Press, Seattle, 1985, pp. 146–57. It provides much valuable historical background about the revolutionary spirit of the times and how the holy Patriarch dealt with it with discretion and wisdom.
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