17th century
Saint Parthenius III of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople hanged in 1657 on the sultan's order after refusing to renounce his faith.
Biography
Parthenius came from Mytilene and was noted as a scholar of the seventeenth century. He became a priest, then metropolitan of Chios, and, at the end of 1656, Patriarch of Constantinople, succeeding Parthenius II and promoting Greek learning in particular.
One of his letters, however, reached the Ottoman authorities, who judged it seditious, and Sultan Ibrahim I ordered his death. Despite pressure to convert to Islam, Parthenius remained firm in his faith and was hanged in Constantinople on 24 March 1657.