Ahmed the Calligrapher

Ahmed the Calligrapher was a Christian saint and official of the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century. According to Christian beliefs he converted to Christianity and was martyred on May 3, 1682; thus he is commemorated as a martyr on this day. The only mentions of him are in Christian hagiographies. [1]

Legend

Ahmed lived in Constantinople during the 1600s and was an official in the Ottoman Turkish government before his conversion.

Ahmed owned a Russian concubine whom he allowed to attend one of the Greek Orthodox churches in Constantinople. In time Ahmed began to notice that when his Russian concubine returned from church she was far more gracious and loving than she was before going. Intrigued by this, Ahmed obtained permission to attend the Ecumenical Patriarch's celebration of the Divine Liturgy in Constantinople. Due to his status and identity, his request was not refused, and he was given a special place when he attended.

During the Divine Liturgy, Ahmed saw that when the Ecumenical Patriarch blessed the faithful with his trikiri and dikiri his fingers 'beamed' light onto the heads of the faithful Christians, but not his own. Amazed by this miracle, Ahmed requested and received Holy Baptism.

Whatever happened during this period, one day a group of arguing officials asked Ahmed for his opinion of their dispute, to which he replied that "There is nothing better than Christian faith and Christian God".

For this he was put before sultan and qadi. After torture and few chances to return to Islam he was subsequentially beheaded on May 3, 1682.

He is celebrated on 24 December/6th January in Eastern Orthodoxy by name of Christodoulos.[2]

Source

  •  This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC-SA 2.5 Ahmed the Calligrapher, Orthodox Wiki, Orthodox Wiki. To learn how to add open license text to Wikipedia articles, please see Wikipedia:Adding open license text to Wikipedia. For information on reusing text from Wikipedia, please see the terms of use.

References

  1. ↑ "SAINT AHMED THE CALLIGRAPHER - ModeOfLife". modeoflife.org.
  2. ↑ "ЖИТИЈА СВЕТИХ ЗА ДЕЦЕМБАР – Страна 25 – Светосавље". svetosavlje.org.

Bibliography

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.