1492–1566
Saint Ignatius Agallianos, Metropolitan of Methymna
A priest from Lesbos who, after losing his wife and most of his children, became a monk and founded the Monastery of Leimonos, and from 1531 until his death in 1566 served as Metropolitan of Methymna.
Biography
Ignatius was born in 1492 in the village of Faraggas on Lesbos, the son of the priest Emmanouel Agallianos. Under his birth name John he married young and likewise became a priest, but after losing his wife and nearly all his children to an epidemic, he withdrew to the Taxiarchis Monastery at Leimonos.
There he rendered important service to the monasteries and the enslaved Christians of the island under Ottoman rule. In 1531 he became, under the name Ignatius, Metropolitan of Methymna, a post he held until his peaceful death in 1566.