New Martyr Theokhares of Neopolis

Martyrdom

The synaxarion account relates that the judge of Neopolis, having taken Theokhares into his household to care for his animals, sought to integrate him into the family by offering his daughter in marriage on the condition that the youth convert to Islam. Theokhares refused, reportedly saying that he had been born a Christian and could not deny the faith of his Savior or of his fathers.

When he persisted in his refusal, the judge imprisoned him without food. The account holds that he was nourished by prayer and survived on occasional water. He escaped to a church where he received communion before again rejecting the marriage proposal.

After severe torture, he was executed about an hour from the city: he was stoned and then hanged at noon on a white poplar tree on August 20, 1740.

Historical Context

Neopolis is the modern city of Nevsehir in Cappadocia, Asia Minor. The settlement was closely associated with Nevsehirli Damad Ibrahim Pasha, the grand vizier who transformed the small village of Muskara into a proper Ottoman city in the early 18th century; this is the Ibrahim Pasha named in the account of Theokhares's martyrdom.

At the time of the martyrdom in 1740, the city was a mixed community with a substantial Greek Orthodox population, reflecting the historic Greek presence in Cappadocia. The kaza of Nevsehir was recorded in the late 19th century as having 8,918 Greeks out of roughly 39,822 inhabitants.

Following the 1923 Convention on the Exchange of Populations, the Greek Orthodox community of Nevsehir was exchanged for Muslims from Kastoria in Western Macedonia. This same displacement brought Theokhares's relics to Thessaloniki in 1923.

Relics & Shrines

Theokhares's relics were transferred to Thessaloniki in 1923 and placed in the Church of Saint Katherine, where, according to the account, they remain.