u/abki12c

https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryUncovered/s/4yQ33xiM9t

On the afternoon of August 27, 1922, while the Turkish Army had full control of Smyrna, an Italian Catholic priest informed the French of the mortal danger facing Chrysostomos. Shortly thereafter, a French patrol consisting of twenty sailors arrived at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Agia Fotini with the aim of whisking Chrysostomos away to safety. The French asked the Metropolitan to accompany them either to their consulate or to the Catholic Church of the Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart of Jesus). He refused, however, stressing that his duty dictated he remain with his flock—"as a good shepherd," as he declared.

In his book «The Death of Smyrna», the French journalist and historian René Puaux, who was sent to Smyrna as a correspondent for the newspaper «Le Temps», holds the Turkish military and political leadership responsible for the ordeal suffered by Chrysostomos. He writes, among other things:

"When General Nureddin Pasha had him brought before him, he heaped vile abuse upon him, accused him of his pro-Greek stance, and declared that his next move would be to hand him over to the judgment of the mob. Chrysostomos was thus surrendered to the frenzied Muslim crowd. They tore out his beard, stabbed and dismembered him, and dragged his body to the Turkish quarter, where they threw it to the dogs."

On December 14, 1982, marking the 60th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the academic G. Mylonas concluded his address at a special session of the Academy of Athens with a harrowing account of the martyrdom and execution of Chrysostomos.

«During the final days of September 1922, a group of students from the International College of Smyrna and I found ourselves imprisoned in a ghastly underground chamber—one of the dungeons within the Smyrna Government House. Crammed tightly inside were Greek Christian prisoners—men, it seemed, destined for death. At five o'clock on the afternoon of the last day of that grim September, a Cretan Turk ordered me to follow him into the courtyard. "Are you a teacher?" he asked. "That was the honor I held," I replied. "And the others who were with you—are they university students?" "Yes," I told him. "Quickly, gather them and bring them here." "Come outside with me," I said to my companions. "It seems our time has come. Let us go forward with courage." Imagine our surprise when we heard the Cretan Turk say: "I will save you today, for I hope this will help me forget a terrible scene my eyes witnessed—a scene in which I myself took part." And he continued: “I watched the brutal destruction of your Bishop. I was among those who blinded him—gouging out his eyes—and dragged him, bloodied, by his beard and hair through the alleys of the Turkish quarter, beating, cursing, and hacking at him. From time to time, whenever he could, he would raise his right hand slightly to bless his tormentors. One of my compatriots recognized the gesture of blessing; he flew into a frenzy and, with his fearsome knife, severed both the Bishop’s hands. The Bishop collapsed onto the blood-soaked earth with a groan that seemed to be one of relief rather than pain. I felt such pity for him then that I finished him off with two bullets to the head.»

G. Horton, the American consul in Smyrna at the time, writes of Chrysostomos in his book *The Blight of Asia*: "He died as a martyr and deserves to be accorded the highest honors by the Greek Church and the Greek Government." In 1992, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece proceeded with the canonization of Chrysostomos.