SAINT DEMETRIOS

 SAINT DEMETRIOS – THE HISTORY OF THESSALONIKI’S PATRON SAINT

 

 

Saint Demetrios or Dimitrios of Thessaloniki is one of the most popular Christian saints not only of Greece but of all the Orthodox Christian world, with millions of people bearing his name, in all of it beautiful variations.

 

Saint Demetrios is also the famous patron saint of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city and millions of Greeks hold a special place in their hearts for this important Christian martyr for this reason.

 

His feast day is celebrated on the 26^th of October, which also coincides with Thessaloniki’s most important day in its modern history: the liberation from the brutal Ottoman Turks in 1921.  Understandably, the Thessalonians all over the world consider this day the most important of the whole year, since they do not only celebrate the feast day of their patron saint but also their liberation from the barbarian Ottoman rule after five long and painful centuries.

 

Saint Demetrios was born in 280 AD, in Thessaloniki, a city that was an important urban center of the Roman Empire.

 

The “Miracula Santi Demetrii”, the earliest written evidence about the martyr’s life is a collection of stories illustrating the miracles he had done.

 

The work indicates that millions of people across the Roman Empire honored the saint from the very early stages of Christianity since many recollections of his miracles had already been known to believers across the Empire.   

 

Saint Demetrios died at the very early age of 26.  Because of his faith in Jesus Christ, he was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured to death by the Romans.  

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