New Martyr Nicholas of Magnesia

Martyrdom

Nicholas traveled to Magnesia on business, and, invested with the authority of his father's employer, he wore a red fez. In that part of Anatolia Christians were permitted to wear only a white fez; the red fez was reserved for Muslims. For wearing it he was brought before the Turkish judge of Magnesia.

The judge asked why he wore the prohibited fez and whether by doing so he meant to embrace Islam. Nicholas answered, in the words preserved by the account, that God forbid he should ever deny his faith. The judge ordered him beaten to force a conversion, and, according to the narrative, increased the violence while also offering rewards and recalling to him the bride he was soon to marry. Nicholas would not renounce Christianity. After being severely beaten he was cast into prison half-dead, and after three days he died, on April 24, 1776.

Veneration

Nicholas is honored as a New Martyr and is commemorated on April 24. He is counted among the neomartyrs commemorated under Ottoman rule, a body of saints whose deaths span roughly the period from the fall of Constantinople through the early nineteenth century, and who are collectively remembered on the Third Sunday after Pentecost, the Synaxis of the New Martyrs.