The life of St John of Epirus
No priest in the region dared baptize him for fear of reprisal, so he traveled to the island of Ithaca, where he was received into the Church and given the name John. He then settled with an Orthodox wife and took up a quiet life as a countryman, avoiding his former community as much as he could.
In time his family learned of his conversion and pressed him to return to Islam; when he would not, he was reported to the Ottoman authorities and brought before a judge. Questioned repeatedly, John answered only that he was a Christian and bore that name. He was condemned and beheaded in Aetolia in 1814. Christians retrieved his body for burial despite the authorities' wish to leave it exposed. His relics were later transferred to the Monastery of Prousos, where they were rediscovered in the twentieth century and are venerated to this day.
