Ambrosios Pleianthidis

Ambrosios Pleiathidis (Greek: Αμβρόσιος Πλειανθίδης, 1872–1922) also known as Ambrosios of Moschonisia was the Greek Orthodox metropolitan bishop of Moschonisia, in modern Turkey, from February to September 1922. He was executed by the Turkish Army at the end of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).^[1]

Ambrosios of Moschonisia Αμβρόσιος Μοσχονησίων
Metropolitan of Moschonisia
Church	Greek Orthodox Church
In office	February – September 1922
Personal details
Born	1872 Smyrna, Aidin Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	1922 Moschonisia, Ottoman Empire

He is commemorated by the Greek Orthodox Church as Hieromartyr (Greek: ιερομάρτυρας) and his feast day is celebrated on the Sunday before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross each year (September 7–13).

Life

Ambrosios was born in Smyrna (modern Izmir), in the Aidin Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, in 1872. He graduated from the Evangelical School of his home town at 1893. After his graduation Ambrosios became an archdeacon in the nearby metropolis of Heliopolis and Thyateira, based in Aydın. He continued his studies and in 1895 he attended the Theolodigal Academy of Kiev and then he became a priest in the Greek community of Feodosiya in Crimea.^[2] In 1910 Ambrosios returned to Smyrna, where he preached in the local metropolis, under metropolitan Chrysostomos.^[2]

From 1919 Ambrosios is found on Cunda Island, part of a small island cluster off western Anatolian coast, which at that time was part of the Greek controlled Smyrna Occupation Zone. On February 19, 1922, he became metropolitan bishop of the newly created local metropolis of Moschonisia, based in Cunda. Following the developments of the Greco-Turkish War and the subsequent Greek defeat, the region of his metropolis came under the Turkish Nationalist Army. Most of the local population did not follow the retreating Greek Army. On the other hand, the Turkish troops arrested the remaining civilian population and sent them to labor battalions in the interior of Anatolia; the majority of them were executed, on September 15, 1922.^[1][3] Among these people was Ambrosios, who was buried alive after being tortured.^[1][4]

References

1. Kiminas, Demetrius (2009). The Ecumenical Patriarchate. Wildside Press LLC. p. 69. ISBN 9781434458766.
2. Tsiri, Theodorou (2008). "Η Προσφορά της Εκκλησίας και του Ιερού Κλήρου στη Μικρά Ασία 1912–1922" (PDF) (in Greek). Thessaloniki: University of Thessaloniki, Department of Theology. pp. 79–83. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
3. Clark, Bruce (2006). Twice a stranger: the mass expulsion that forged modern Greece and Turkey. Cambridge (Massachusetts): Harvard University Press. p. 25. ISBN 9780674023680.
4. Charitopoulos, Evangelos. "Diocese of Moschonisia" (in Greek). Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Μ. Ασία. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2012.