{"id":17171,"date":"2026-07-09T04:48:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/the-athenian-teenager-who-died-for-his-christian-faith\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T04:48:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T04:48:57","slug":"the-athenian-teenager-who-died-for-his-christian-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/the-athenian-teenager-who-died-for-his-christian-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"The Athenian teenager who died for his Christian faith"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-first=\"S\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<h3 id=\"h-saint-michael-baknanas-was-born-in-athens-in-1750-and-lived-in-a-neighbourhood-beneath-the-acropolis-near-the-area-of-today-s-ancient-agora\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Saint Michael Baknanas was born in Athens in <strong>1750<\/strong> and lived in a neighbourhood beneath the Acropolis, near the area of today\u2019s Ancient Agora.<\/h3>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Living under Ottoman rule, Michael worked as a gardener. As a young Christian, he was pressured to convert to Islam, with promises of reward and favour reportedly followed by torture when he refused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Orthodox tradition, Michael remained firm in his faith despite repeated attempts to force his conversion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As he was led to execution, the executioner is said to have struck him lightly at first, urging him to reconsider. Michael\u2019s response remained unchanged: <strong>\u201cI told you, I am a Christian. I refuse to become a Muslim.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-09-at-10.31.03-am.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12625\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was then executed and later recognised by the Orthodox Church as <strong>Saint Michael Baknanas, the New Martyr<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His memory remains part of Athens\u2019 Christian heritage. <strong>Baknana Street<\/strong> and a nearby tram stop in <strong>Neos Kosmos<\/strong> are named after him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His feast day is commemorated on <strong>June 30<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<footer class=\"article-tags entry-footer\">\n<div>\n\t\t<strong>Tags:<\/strong><br \/>\n\t\tAcropolis, Ancient Agora, Athens, Christian saints, Christianity, Greek heritage, Greek history, Greek Orthodox, Neos Kosmos, New Martyrs, Orthodox church, Orthodox saints, Ottoman empire, Saint Michael Baknanas\t<\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<div class=\"category_container author-information\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<section id=\"authorpage\" class=\"authorpage\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/488a5f066fe5c047a67005aaf696382fcf4a48c076ff43821b952beeab92438d?s=164&amp;r=g\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/488a5f066fe5c047a67005aaf696382fcf4a48c076ff43821b952beeab92438d?s=328&amp;r=g 2x\" class=\"avatar avatar-164 photo lazyload\" height=\"164\" width=\"164\" decoding=\"async\"\/>\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"author-content\">\n<h5>GCT Team<\/h5>\n<p>This article was researched and written by a GCT team member.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<i class=\"fa-solid fa-link\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/greekcitytimes\" class=\"boxed-icon fill twitter\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-x-twitter\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Greekcitytimes\" class=\"boxed-icon fill facebook\" v=\"\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/greekcitytimes\" class=\"boxed-icon fill instagram\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-instagram\"\/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/2026\/07\/09\/saint-michael-baknanas-teenage-martyr-athens\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saint Michael Baknanas was born in Athens in 1750 and lived in a neighbourhood beneath the Acropolis, near the area of today\u2019s Ancient Agora. Living under Ottoman rule, Michael worked as a gardener. As a young Christian, he was pressured to convert to Islam, with promises of reward and favour reportedly followed by torture when &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"The Athenian teenager who died for his Christian faith\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/the-athenian-teenager-who-died-for-his-christian-faith\/#more-17171\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Athenian teenager who died for his Christian faith\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/greekcitytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-09-at-10.31.03-am.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}