AT first, all the prisoner would say was that his name was John and he was a Christian, but when directly charged with apostasy he did not lie. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but now I am a Christian; and I expect to be a Christian until I die.’ Alarmed at such a high-profile defection, the governor begged him with extravagant bribes to recant, but John was unmoved. The governor sent him back to his cell, where he was chained and repeatedly beaten. At last, the Pasha’s patience broke and he ordered John’s execution.
As he knelt before the block, John asked for one hand to be untied so that he could make the sign of the cross. His last request was denied. So he cried ‘Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom!’,* and bent his neck.
The Pasha ordered that his grave be unmarked and no prayers be said, but the Christians defied him. Five years later his remains were moved to the Monastery at Prousos,* and a tile was laid upon them that read: ‘This was the Ottoman John of Vrachori,* martyred for Christ on September 23rd, 1814.’
* Prousos lies some 15 miles northeast of Agrinio. It was Cyril Kastanofilis (1775-1835), a resident of the monastery from 1814 to 1825 and Abbot from 1820 or 1821, who masterminded the translation of John’s relics, in part because the growing cult surrounding him had come to the notice of the Agrinio authorities. John’s remains were secreted in the crypt, and then fell out of mind for a hundred and sixty years until the tomb was rediscovered in 1974.
* See Luke 23:42, where the penitent thief who was crucified alongside Jesus said to him, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” It is one of the few passages in the Authorised Version that might have been better translated. The words ‘into thy kingdom’ should be ‘in thy kingdom’. The thief was not asking to be remembered when Christ ascended into heaven following his death and resurrection. Like the martyr John in this story, he was asking to be remembered when Christ returns to earth in glory, bringing the kingdom of heaven with him. See Revelation 21:1-4.
* Vrachori was another name for Agrinio during Ottoman times. The ancient Greek name for the settlement was Agrinion.