The life of St Nicolas Karamos of Smyrna
He answered that he would never deny Christ, his Maker and Savior, who would judge the living and the dead. For this answer he was imprisoned and tortured further, which by tradition he bore gladly, and the judge at length condemned him to be hanged. He died in Smyrna in the year 1657, and his body was left exposed for three days before Christians under compulsion were made to drag it toward the sea.
What became of his relics afterward is remembered differently in different accounts. The Orthodox tradition, recorded by Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, holds that French Christians recovered his body and carried it to France with honor, though some think this detail may itself be legend and that only his son, not his body, ultimately reached France. A Jesuit account from the following year, meanwhile, claimed the martyrdom for the Catholic community of Smyrna under a different name, a claim Orthodox sources do not accept.
