New Martyr Michael Paknanas the Gardener

Life and Martyrdom

Michael Paknanas lived in Athens under Ottoman rule and earned his living as a gardener, a humble trade that provided only a modest income. The accounts of his life present him as a young man of simple and guileless character.

By the synaxarion's account, his sufferings began when guards at the city gates, driven by envy, falsely charged him with smuggling weapons to the armatoloi, the irregular Greek fighters of the period. He was imprisoned and, over a span of about thirty days, subjected to various torments and to repeated demands that he convert to Islam. Neither his youth nor the severity of the pressure moved him to renounce Christ.

When his accusers saw that they could not break his resolve, he was condemned to death. On July 9, 1771, he was beheaded; he was about eighteen years old. The date of his execution is attested by an inscription associated with the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens.

Veneration

Michael is commemorated in the Orthodox Church as a Holy New Martyr, with an Apolytikion and Kontakion composed in his honor; his memory is kept on June 30 and July 9. In Athens his name was later given to a street (Baknana Street) and a nearby tram stop in the Neos Kosmos district.

Because he was a gardener, he came to be venerated as a patron of gardeners. According to later accounts, on April 4, 2003 the Archbishop of Athens, Christodoulos, also named him a patron of dieticians and nutritionists, recalling a tradition that the saint had commended a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.