The Bitola martyrs: killed in 1385, declared saints only in 2012

On October 28, Orthodox believers marked the feast of the Holy Forty Venerable Martyrs of Bitola. According to the church hagiography, they were monks from the monastery dedicated to St. George who were killed in 1385, after the Ottoman conquest of Bitola. They were told to renounce the Christian faith. They refused, and according to tradition they were executed on Bair hill.

Their memory was kept for centuries in the local spiritual tradition, but it only got an official place in the calendar of the Macedonian Orthodox Church - Archdiocese of Ohrid on October 28, 2012. That day, a hierarchical liturgy was served in the cathedral of St. Demetrius the Great Martyr in Bitola, the icon was consecrated, and a solemn procession wound through the city despite rain that fell the whole time.

From death to canonization: 627 years. That is a long road for a single act of witness. No widespread folk customs are tied to the day across Macedonia, and the calendar marks it as a fasting day, with oil permitted.

At a time when anniversaries easily become an excuse for speeches, this feast stays in the hands of the faithful and of the city that remembered it for centuries. Maybe that is exactly why it carries weight.