Description
St. Stamatios was born in the Village of St. George in Volos, Greece in the mid-17th century at the time of the Ottoman Turkish oppressive Moslem occupation of Orthodox Christian Eastern Europe and Greece. Theoretically, Christians were allowed to live as second-class citizens, but never had equal rights in law, in occupations, in religious expression, or in taxation. This expression of “dimmitude” is prevalent even today by Islamic Law.
St. Stamatios was inspired to go with a group to Constantinople to protest the especially unfair taxes that were being levied on them by the tax collectors for the Sultan. They had a list of grievances to present to the Sultan himself. Although they made it to the city, they never saw the Sultan but were detained by the Grand Vizier who insulted and persecuted them. The rest of his party left in despair, but St. Stamatios stayed to confess his Faith in Christ, and the rightness of his cause. The vizier, hoping that by pressure St. Stamatios would become a Moslem to save his life, as many had done before him, threatened and tortured him. St. Stamatios was beheaded before Hagia Sophia Church in a.d. 1688.