Early Life and Formation
Born in 1864 at Manisa (Magnesia) in the Ottoman Empire, the future metropolitan bore the secular name Anastasios; his surname is recorded as Saatsoglou and also as Antoniadis. In 1882 he was admitted to the Theological School of Halki with the backing of Metropolitan Agathangelos of Ephesus. On entering the seminary he rendered his Turkish surname Saatsoglou into the equivalent Greek Orologas, both meaning 'clockmaker.'
He graduated in 1889 with a dissertation arguing that the Holy Evangelists never disagreed over the Lord's last Passover. Ordained deacon in his final year, he took the religious name Gregorios. He subsequently served in the dioceses of Thessaloniki, Serres, and Drama as deacon, instructor, archimandrite, protosyngellos, and preacher, and was among the first preachers to use Demotic Greek in sermons.
Episcopal Ministry
Gregory was consecrated Metropolitan of Strumica on October 12, 1902, serving there until July 22, 1908. During this period he faced threats from the Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee and survived several assassination attempts in 1905.
Under Ottoman government pressure he was transferred to the newly established Diocese of Cydoniae (Kydonies, also called Aivali or Ayvalık), taking up the see on July 22, 1908. As metropolitan he supported educational and charitable institutions and intervened with the authorities on behalf of his people during the martial-law persecutions of 1909. In World War I he was tried and convicted of high treason on unproven accusations and imprisoned in 1917, being released on October 16, 1918 after the Ottoman capitulation.
The Asia Minor Catastrophe and Martyrdom
During the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, Gregory remained in Kydonies. When the Turkish advance began in August 1922 he proposed a civilian evacuation to prevent massacres; though his recommendations were at first rejected, he secured American Red Cross permission for ships from Lesbos and coordinated the departure of about 20,000 of the roughly 35,000 Greek Orthodox residents on Greek vessels sailing under an American flag.
He encouraged his priests to evacuate but himself stayed with his flock. Arrested on September 30, 1922 with local priests at the waterfront, he was tortured in a prison beside the city hospital. According to witnesses, he died of a heart attack on October 3, 1922 when Turkish troops attempted to bury him alive.
Canonization and Legacy
The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece unanimously declared Gregory an ethnomartyr and saint on November 4, 1992, with the formal encyclical (no. 2556) issued on July 5, 1993. He is honored with the title Ethno-Hieromartyr and commemorated among the hierarchs of the Asia Minor Catastrophe alongside Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna. His feast is kept on the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which falls between September 7 and 13.
A statue erected in Mytilene in 1932 bears the inscription: 'Metropolitan of Cydoniae, Gregorios. Martyred in 1922. The good shepherd laid down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).'
