Saint John, New Martyr of Bulgaria

Blessed John was born in Bulgaria. He renounced Christ but soon repented and left his homeland, arriving at the Holy Mountain, where he served a spiritual elder for three years. The pangs of conscience did not give him peace, and he left the Holy Mountain, heading to Constantinople. Dressed in Turkish clothing, he entered the mosque of Saint Sophia, where he began to perform the sign of the honorable cross and pray in the Christian manner. The wicked, seeing him, asked about the reasons for his actions, to which he boldly confessed his faith in Christ. For this, he was beheaded outside the courtyard of Saint Sophia, and he accepted a martyr's death, receiving a crown from Christ God. Saint John suffered at the age of 19, in 1784.