Saint Markella of Chios
Virgin martyr from Chios, one of the island's most venerated saints.
Biography
Markella was born and raised in Volissos in northwestern Chios. According to her biographer, the monk Nikephoros the Chian, she lived around 1500; her father was a pagan, while her Christian mother died while Markella was still young.
According to tradition, her father, seeing her piety, developed an improper desire for her; Markella fled the house and took refuge in the mountains, where he pursued her and eventually killed her.
The rock where, according to tradition, she hid while wounded before her death remains to this day a place of pilgrimage on Chios, where the faithful come seeking her miraculous grace.