Martyr Anthony of Vilnius

The Martyr Anthony is one of the three Martyrs of Vilnius who suffered in 1347 under Grand Duke Algirdas (Olgerd) of Lithuania. He and his brother John served at the prince's court and were secretly baptized by the priest Nestor, confessor of the Orthodox Princess Maria Yaroslavna, Olgerd's wife.

When Olgerd tested their loyalty by ordering them to eat meat on a fast day, the brothers replied that their duty to God was higher than obedience to the prince and were imprisoned. John gave way and was released, but Anthony firmly confessed his faith, was imprisoned again and refused communion with his brother until John, too, openly confessed Christ. Anthony was executed first, strangled on 14 April 1347; John was hanged on 24 April, and their kinsman Eustathius on 14 December.

The martyrs were canonized by Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople in 1374. Their relics have rested in the Holy Spirit Monastery in Vilnius since 1655; taken to Moscow in 1915 and placed in a museum in 1920, they were returned to Vilnius on 26 July 1946. The three martyrs are commemorated together on 14 (27) April.