Martyr
Martyr John of Vilnius
† 24 апреля 1347
Also known as: Мч. Иоанн Виленский, Иоанн Литовский, Мчч. Антоний, Иоанн и Евстафий Виленские
One of the three Martyrs of Vilnius, a Lithuanian courtier of Grand Duke Algirdas who, after a moment of weakness, confessed Christ again and was hanged in Vilnius in 1347.
Martyr John is one of the three Martyrs of Vilnius who suffered in 1347 under Grand Duke Algirdas (Olgerd) of Lithuania. With his brother Anthony he served at the ducal court; both were secretly baptised by the priest Nestor, confessor of Algirdas's Orthodox wife Maria of Vitebsk.
When the brothers refused to eat meat on a fast day, they were imprisoned. John gave way and agreed to perform pagan rites and was released, while Anthony remained firm. Strengthened by Father Nestor, John confessed his faith again, was beaten and imprisoned once more. Anthony was strangled on 14 April and John was hanged on 24 April 1347; their kinsman Eustathius was executed on 14 December.
Patriarch Philotheus of Constantinople canonised the martyrs in 1374. Their relics rest in the Holy Spirit Monastery in Vilnius; taken to Moscow in 1915 and later placed in a museum, they were returned to Vilnius on 26 July 1946. The three martyrs are commemorated together on 14/27 April and in the Synaxis of the Saints of Belarus.