The Holy New Martyr Onuphrius of Gabrovo, who suffered at Chios
1786 – 1818 · Hilandar monk and new-martyr, martyred at Chios
A monk of Hilandar on Mount Athos, born near Gabrovo, who was beheaded at Chios in 1818 after openly confessing Christ before the Ottoman authorities.
Saint Onuphrius of Gabrovo — in the world Matthew — was a Bulgarian Orthodox monk and new-martyr who suffered under Ottoman rule. He was born about 1786 at Gabrovo in central Bulgaria, then within the Tarnovo diocese of the Ottoman Empire, and grew up in an Orthodox family, drawn from youth to the faith.
Seeking a deeper spiritual life, he went as a young man to Mount Athos and entered the Serbian monastery of Hilandar, a major center of Slavic Orthodox life, where he received his monastic formation. He was tonsured a monk with the name Manasses and later took the great schema with the name Onuphrius.
After a period of intense prayer, fasting, and preparation, he set out with the elder Gregory of the Peloponnese for the island of Chios. There he openly confessed Christ before the Ottoman authorities and refused every pressure to embrace Islam; he was seized, cruelly tortured, and on January 4, 1818, beheaded on the seashore, his body cast into the sea.
Local Christians preserved the memory of his confession, and his veneration spread within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and among the Athonite communities. He is distinct from the earlier hieromartyr Damascene of Gabrovo, with whom his home town is also associated.
The Ottoman centuries produced many Orthodox New Martyrs across Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, and the Middle East — most of them remembered for refusing conversion to Islam. Bulgaria's Christians held legal standing within the Rum millet but occupied a subordinate place, and the public confession of figures like Onuphrius strengthened the Orthodox communities that lived under that pressure.
His formation at Hilandar links him to one of the most influential centers of Orthodox monasticism, which through Ottoman rule preserved Orthodox learning, manuscripts, and monastic life. His life shows the reach of Athonite spirituality far beyond the Holy Mountain, into the Bulgarian lands and the wider Balkans.
Within Bulgarian Orthodox memory Onuphrius stands for steadfastness and fidelity to Christ in a difficult age, and his feast forms part of the broader commemoration of the Orthodox who suffered under Ottoman rule. Several details of his witness are preserved in near-contemporary accounts, distinguishing him from saints of the period known only in fragments.
Reposed Jan 4, 1818 at Chios; secular name Matthew, monastic names Manasses then Onuphrius. Distinct from the Hieromartyr Damascene of Gabrovo (OS-0469).