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| St. Savvas the New Martyr from Nigdi (Feast Day - November 12) |
Verses
You head was cut off Savvas the boast of Martyrs,
And you were joined with Christ the head of all.
Savvas Samoladas was from the village of Nigdi in Asia Minor. He was an Orthodox Christian who became wealthy as a merchant. His wealth, however, provoked the envy of some Muslims who wished to take it away from him and share it among themselves. They conspired, therefore, to apply pressure on Savvas to convert to Islam and abandon Orthodoxy, perhaps hoping that he would refuse and then his property could be legally confiscated.
Savvas, a faithful Orthodox Christian, did refuse when he was pressured to convert to the Muslim faith. This brought him a death sentence, and he was beheaded in Constantinople, at a place called Kutzuk Karamani, on the 12th of November in 1726, and was buried at Egri Kapi.