Saint Aquilina of

Thessalonica Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

(also spelled ''Akylina'') was an 18th-century

Greek Orthodox Christian The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also call ...

saint and martyr. She was born in Zagliberi, a village near Thessalonica in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

at a time when Greece was under the rule of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. When she was a baby her father accidentally killed a Muslim neighbour, and converted to Islam in order to escape execution. However, Aquilina's mother raised her as a Christian. When she reached the age of eighteen, the Ottoman authorities pressured her father to make her convert to Islam as well. When she refused, she was arrested and beaten to death on September 27, 1764. Her

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tang ...

were hidden by Christians to avoid desecration, and were only discovered in 2012, in the nearby town of Ossa, Thessaloniki. She is commemorated as a saint in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

, with feast day on September 27.

References

Year of birth missing 1764 deaths Christians executed for refusing to convert to Islam New Martyrs 18th-century Greek people Saints of Ottoman Greece People from Thessaloniki (regional unit) Greek saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church 18th-century Greek women {{saint-stub