How the Archbishop of Smyrna was Martyred

The Barbarous Turks Captured the Foremost Christian Ecclesiastic of Asia Minor and Had Him Torn to Pieces with Wild Horses on a Public Square in Smyrna.

Source: The Washington Times, October 29, 1922, page 9.

 

The destruction of over 200,000 lives at Smyrna by massacre, fire, hunger, suicide and other cruel forms of death is such a vast tragedy that it is difficult to fix one's attention on any particular incident of it.

The disaster is so great that the mind cannot hold it all. There was, however, one tragedy which in its wickedness and barbarity exceeds anything that has happened in modern times, and therefore should receive attention from Americans.

The tragedy was the martyrdom of Monsignor Chrysostom, the Greek Metropolitan (or Archbishop) of Smyrna. It is evidently the purpose of the Turks in their present campaign to wipe out all Christians in Asia Minor. The deliberate torture and murder of the leading ecclesiastics of the proscribed religion was a terrible earnest of their intention.

The manner in which the Archbishop of Smyrna met death has not yet been reported in the American press. The Paris Figaro, which is a warm supporter of the French policy of backing the Turks against the Greeks, and cannot be suspected of being prejudiced against the Turks, prints the facts briefly.

The Figaro states that the news of Archbishop Chrysostom's death was brought to Athens by the Bishop of Ephesus, who escaped from the sack of Smyrna disguised as a sailor and reached Athens on a French ship. The facts told by him are beyond question.

Monsignor Chrysostom, who was a very courageous man and an aggressive leader of the Greek Christians, bravely remained at his post when the victorious Kemalist army entered Smyrna. Massacre and atrocities by the Turks were regarded as certain by the terrified inhabitants, few of whom were able to escape. A host of more than 300,000 panic-stricken refugees (Greeks, Armenians and Jews) from the interior, who had fled before the victorious Turks and seen their relatives tortured and massacred, poured into the city, which already had a population of 450,000. These conditions alone produced famine and misery.

When the Turkish army entered, Archbishop Chrysostom begged the Turkish commanders to maintain order among the followers, and he exhorted his own panic-stricken coreligionists to be calm and sensible. Turkish officers disregarded him entirely and insolently, and allowed him to be seized by a band of the most savage and fanatical Mohammedans. He was especially hated for his bold championship of his religious followers and his nation. With him they captured his faithful dragoman.

The Turks began by tearing out the Archbishop's beard, which like all Greek priests, he wore full and uncut.  Then they tore his clothes off and subjected him to many dreadful tortures, such as tearing out his tongue and pulling out his finger and toe nails. 

Finally, while   there was still life in his quivering body, he was carried to the Iki-Chesme Square for the supreme agony. Four horses were secured. The Archbishop was placed on his back, and one horse was tied by a long rope to one of his feet, another horse to another foot, another horse to one of his hands and another horse to the other hand.

Four Turks mounted   the four horses, one on each, and with their whips drove the animals in   different directions. One Turk drove his horse to the north, the next drove to the west, the next to the south, and the remaining one to the east.

The Archbishop was slowly torn in four parts by the animals. The fanatical mob watched the   proceeding with hideous pleasure, urged on the horses and howled with rage and satisfaction. At last they seized the   remains of   the victim. The Archbishop's dragoman suffered practically the same fate.

 

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