He was Igumen of the Monastery of Jacob's Well, near the city of Samaria, now Nablus in the West Bank. One week before his martyrdom in 1979, a group of Zionists came to the monastery at Jacob's Well and claimed it as a Jewish holy place, demanding that all crosses and icons be removed. Father Philoumenos pointed out that the floor on which they stood was built by Emperor Constantine before 331 A.D. and had served as an Orthodox Christian holy place for sixteen centuries before the state of Israel was created. In the eight centuries before that, the well had been not in the hands of the Hebrew people, but of the Samaritans. The group left with threats. On November 16, 1979 , they broke into the monastery, and after tying up Father Philoumenos, tortured him to try to force him to recant his Christianity: his eyes were gouged out, and the fingers and thumb of his right hand, with which he made the sign of the Cross, were cut into pieces. He died as he was struck on the face with a hatchet in the form of a cross, deeply severing his face from hairline to chin, and across his cheeks to his ears. The attackers then defiled the church in abominable ways, leaving Zionist symbols and graffiti.
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| Icon of New Martyr Philoumenos |
No arrests were ever made by the authorities. In 1984, the body of Archimandrite Philoumenos was found to be incorrupt, as it remains until now, and there have been many reported answers to prayer at his relics. He was glorified by the Patriarchate of Jerusalem on August 17, 2008 and his feast is November 16. According to his great-niece Maria, his twin brother, Igumen Elpidios, saw him in a vision in Greece at the moment of his death, saying, "My brother, they are killing me."
-From editor's note, p.30 of Road to Emmaus Vol. XI, No.4 -
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