When the Turks found the Greek bishop Dionysios the Philosopher in 1611, they flayed him alive, stuffed his skin with straw, and paraded it from city to city. Eventually, this "attraction" reached Constantinople, where it was received with enthusiasm by the muslims. When it passed below the sultan's seraglio, the sultan, hearing the commotion, rose from his throne and stepped out onto the balcony to see what was happening. Three days later, the muslim Turks also discovered Deli Giorgos and Lambros. They burned Lambros alive, while they crucified Giorgos and, instead of a crown of thorns on his head, they drilled holes into which they placed feathers. Dionysios’s skin, together with the heads of 85 Greek Christian rebels, was sent to Constantinople, where it was thrown into the Sultan’s stables. Afterwards, Osman Pasha carried out reprisals against the population of Thesprotia, while a climate of terror spread to Ioannina and throughout Epirus. Many churches and monasteries were destroyed, such as that of Saint Demetrios at Dichouni, and their properties were confiscated. Many inhabitants of these areas were killed, enslaved, or forced to convert to Islam, while most of the survivors scattered into the mountains. From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until 1822, the Greeks suffered systematically unimaginable tortures and slaughters for their faith. It was barbarism that the human mind cannot imagine or comprehend. These are dark pages of history that the world does not know. But you have learn and search about what the barbarians did in the name of their god. - Homer Pavlos

One of the most horrific tortures during the Ottoman period was that of the hooks or "tsigkelia", as the Muslim Turks called them. On the walls of cities or on specially erected scaffolds, large hooks with sharp, sharpened points were fixed. The naked victim, a Christian, was thrown onto the hooks from high up on the walls or was hoisted up with special pulleys and dropped onto the hooks of the scaffolds. There he remained impaled for days, tormented by terrible pains until he finally expired. If, moreover, the hooks had not pierced a vital organ, the torture could last several days. Historical accounts mention the presence of such a scaffold with hooks in the central square of Heraklion (Candia), where many Cretans, mainly rebels, met their tragic end. The Ottoman lords had a well-known proverb on their lips: "A head that does not bow falls." The execution of the sentence was carried out in public view by a specialized executioner called makelaris (a Greek-Byzantine word meaning "butcher"), with the well-known curved Ottoman sword, the yataghan. The victim arrived at the place of slaughter ridiculed and publicly shamed. Before the execution he had, as a rule, been beaten and often mutilated. The punishment itself was painless and instantaneous, but the entire preceding process made it agonizing. The body and head remained exposed for days. Often the victim's head was impaled on a pole and paraded through the city, especially if the victim happened to be an officially wanted person. Other times it was preserved and sent to the Sultan himself. Still other times the head remained hung or impaled in a prominent position for days, until the natural decomposition of its features began. The torture of beheading was naturally also connected with the fate of the Four Martyrs who concern us in the present work. Indeed, the Synaxarion of the Saints confirms everything we have said so far. After harsh tortures and public humiliation through the streets of Rethymno, the Saints ended up in the square of the Great Gate, which today bears their name in their honor, to be beheaded. Apart from the official executions, there were also the mass slaughters of Christian populations in cases where the Islamic-Ottoman state wanted to demonstrate its power. The main pretext for the massacres was reprisals against revolutionary movements. Alongside the official figures who were publicly executed (bishops, notables, etc.), unruly hordes of Janissaries would rush into Christian homes, break down doors, kill anyone they found in front of them, and then plunder the house, seizing whatever they liked. When leaving, in many cases they also set the house on fire. Theochares Detorakis, in his "History of Crete", conveys a chilling piece of information. When they killed Bishop Gerasimos of Rethymno in 1821, they opened his chest, removed his heart, and sprinkled their banners with its blood in order to achieve victories against the infidels. The entire description of the incident directly evokes cannibalism from a primitive era. - Homer Pavlos