On this day, June 2 according to the Julian Calendar (June 15 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Martyr Constantine the Athonite (+1819).
The Holy Martyr Constantine was born on the island of Mytilene. His parents were Muslims. In his youth the future saint was struck with smallpox. Gravely ill and having lost his sight, with all his strength failing him, he was brought by a Christian woman to an Orthodox church, where he was healed through holy water. Not long afterward, Saint Constantine went to Mount Athos, was baptized, and conceived a longing for a martyr’s death for Christ. His spiritual father advised him to remain in stillness, to spend forty days in complete silence, fasting and prayer, and to entrust himself to God.
With the Lord’s blessing, the martyr confessed Christ before the Turks, for which he was first cruelly tortured and then strangled. Saint Constantine began his martyric struggle for Christ on April 23, 1819, and completed it on June 2 of the same year.
May the intercessions of the Holy Martyr Constantine the Athonite be with us all.