Aquilina (Akylina) was an eighteenth-century Greek martyr from the village of Zagliveri, in the diocese of Ardameri near Thessalonica, during the Ottoman occupation of Greece. She was raised a Christian by her mother even though her father had been compelled to convert to Islam, and she was put to death on September 27, 1764, after refusing to renounce her faith. The Orthodox Church commemorates her as a New Martyr on September 27.
According to her life, while Aquilina was still an infant her father killed a Turkish neighbor in a quarrel; to escape execution he embraced Islam. Her mother nevertheless remained a Christian and brought up her daughter in the faith. As Aquilina grew, the Ottoman authorities repeatedly pressed her father to bring about her conversion as well, and when she reached the age of eighteen the demand was made of her directly.
Aquilina refused to deny Christ. She was arrested, brought before a judge, and subjected to repeated severe beatings, interspersed with interrogations in which she was offered marriage and material reward to apostatize. She remained steadfast through the torture and died of her wounds on September 27, 1764. By tradition the account of her martyrdom was set down by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite among the New Martyrs of the Ottoman period.
