Constantin Brâncoveanu was born in 1654 from the parents of Papa Postelnicul and Stanca Cantacuzino. Constantine grew up without a father because he died when he was only a year old. She is raised by her mother, grandmother from father Păuna Greceanu and his uncle, Stolnic Constantin Cantacuzino, whom he gets to love like a father.
Brâncoveanu, during his lifetime, holds various leading positions in the country: agate, postelnic, back and log. The sudden death of Şerban Cantacuzino brings Constantin Brâncoveanu into the role of the prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714. The country has a great cultural and spiritual flourishing during this period.
The gentleman also had an intense diplomatic activity. In 1695 he was given the title of the Habsburg Empire, and then the Turks recognized his reign for life.
But all these beautiful things in Brâncoveanu’s life would end in the most terrible way possible. In 1711, Dimitrie Cantemir, who was the lord of Moldavia, together with the Tsar of Russia Peter, stands up against the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, backing Tom Cantacuzino passes on to the Russians and conquers Braila. All this happens without Brâncoveanu’s knowledge.
However, the decisive Battle of Stănileşti was won by the Turks. Brancoveanu was compromised in the eyes of the Ottomans by this act of treason. At this event were also added some of the boyars who made Mr. Brâncoveanu fall into disgrace.
It is anointed in the Passion Week of 1714. He and his family are taken to Constantinople. All the belongings of the Brâncoveanu family are confiscated. From April to the end of July, the members of the Brâncoveanu family are subjected to terrible tortures such as stretching on the wheel, tightening their heads with a metal circle, burning with reddened iron, punching their hands and feet. All these facts were taking place in the prison of Edicule, The Seven Towers of Istanbul.
The day of execution was August 15, when Constantine was 60 years old, and Christians celebrated, as in today’s day, the “Assumption of the Virgin”.
The ruler, together with his four sons and son-in-law, Enache Văcărescu, were forced to walk through the city to the execution site. They were barefoot and dressed only in their shirts. The event was also invited to attend ambassadors from Christian Europe.
Del Chiaro meant Brâncoveanu’s words: “My sons, be courageous, we have lost everything we have in this world, at least to save our souls and wash our sins with our blood.”
The torment and drama of that dark day lasted only a quarter of an hour. First, the sons and son-in-law were beheaded for the ruler to be able to watch the deaths of his dear ones. Constantin, Stephanita, Radu, Mateias and Enache Vacarescu are mercilessly killed. Then Constantin Brancoveanu was decapitated.
Their bodies were thrown into the waters of the Bosphorus, and the heads were thrown into the rods and stood for three days at the gate of the Seraph. Later the bodies were fished from the sea and taken to a Byzantine monastery. Mr Brâncoveanu’s body was brought to Bucharest in secret and was buried at the Church of St. George. The plate above the marmant was left without inscription for the Turks’ fear. But on the silver candle burning above the crypt were engraved the words: “Blessed Lord Io Constantin Brâncoveanu Basarab Voievod …” In 1992, Brâncoveanu family is canonized and passed among the saints, like Stephen the Great.
The Brâncovenian martyr in the European time press
Various periodicals or political, contemporary moments have highlighted the tough situation, torture and martyrdom of the Brancoven family in Istanbul.
Thus, Le journal historique of Verdun, in August 1714, noted that family members were imprisoned separately so that they could not communicate with each other: “This prince and his children were imprisoned in the Seven Towers Castle; that they were separated so that they would not be able to see, nor hear, nor communicate through letters, nor between themselves, nor with others, inside or outside the prison. “
The Dutchman Colyer’s report, on May 10, 1714, brings new clarification: “Day and night, the Lord is seated in a darkened room deep in the face of the earth, and his wife, who had to give his juveniles, is in a room of up, well-guarded “information that we find at Hochepied on May 15, the same year:” They brought this godless prince and his sons, as well as three leading boyars, to a deep pit earth, where, for lack of light, I can not burn candles, nor candles, separated from his wife. ” About their torture to declare their fortune is written by the Gazette de France in the numbers from May to August 1714, but also by Le Mercure Galant in Paris, as well as the mentioned diary from Verdun.
About the imprisonment of the Lord, his torture and his children, the refusal to change their religion to save their lives and their death, speak many sources of the event, coming from the French, Dutch, Venetian ambassadors in Constantinople, from the writings of foreign travelers in the capital of the Ottoman Empire at that time or in the Romanian chronicles.
The first feelings in the press and the European chancelleries over the drama of the Romanian lord are profoundly merciful. “Poor” and “Unhappy” are the most common epithet attributed to Brancovean. The death of the Brancovens was a martyrdom, and they refused to go to Islam to save their lives, preferring to die, rather than leaving their faith. We present some of these testimonies that have been published, giving readers a closer picture of the circumstances of the murder of the Wallachian, his children, and counselor Ianache.
Hochpied’s letter:
“On August 26 (August 15, New Style), on Sunday, with an hour before noon, at the command of the Sultan, Brâncoveanu was suddenly taken from the Seven Towers prison and was taken as a bad maker , only in his shirt, with four sons, and a son-in-law son-in-law from the Principality, who were all on his way to the city on foot. And so he was brought to the Grand Seraya, before the royal kiosk, on the water’s edge. There stood the Sultan with the Grand Vizier, who had just come out of the Great Divan. “
Anton Maria del Chiaro, the secretary of Voivode Chancellery Constantin Brâncoveanu:
“Imbrohorul, after communicating to Brâncoveanu the serious accusations made by the sultan, dignifiedly listened to him, orders his submission, as well as his great son, to heavy torture, to rip the confession of their property. After confessing all, after five days, on Sunday August 26, the Assumption of the Virgin, in the presence of the Sultan, which was at a certain distance, the Imbrohorus subjected the Voivode to a new interrogation, to which Brâncoveanu responded without fear, after which a sign is approaching. “
Ambassador Andrea Memmo to the Doge of Venice:
“On the morning of Sunday, the head of the old prince of Wallachia, all his sons and a boyar who was his coach, was cut off. The Sultan himself came to face such a pitiful view. “
French Ambassador to Constantinople, Des Alleurs, to King Louis XIV:
“After the audience given to the Swedish envoy, the sultan enters a queue and goes to one of the sermons he has on the Black Sea canal. There, on the seashore, he was seen to see the decapitation of four sons and a relative of Wallachian voivode before this unfortunate prince who, after all, suffered the same slander.
Del Chiaro:
“When Brâncoveanu saw that he approached the sword in his hand, he made a brief prayer and addressed his sons with the following words:” My sons, be brave! I lost everything I had in this world; at least save our souls and wash our sins with our blood. “
Des Alleurs:
“He proposed to all forgiveness if he wanted to embrace the Mohammedan religion. They all refused, except for the youngest of the sons, who, seeing the heads of his brothers roll to the ground, said he wanted to become a Turk. “
French Traveler Aubry De La Motraye, serving King Carol XII of Sweden:
“The butcher puts them all on their knees, some distance from each other and pulling off their head hats. And after he allowed them to make a brief prayer, he cut with one shot the head of voivode assistant (…) and then of the greater son. But when he raised his sword to cut off the head of the youngest, 16-year-old, fear-begging, he demanded that his life be spared, instead of becoming a Muslim; then, his father, hurting him and urging him to die a thousand times more if he could, than to deny Jesus Christ, only to live a few more years on earth, this one (Matthew) said to the butcher: I want to die Christian, hurt !; and immediately the thighs cut his head like the others. He finally beheaded his father.”
The testimony of Polish Ambassador Goltz to Constantinople:
“Their bodies were steadily thrown toward the crowd from morning to evening, then scattered in the waters of the Euxin Pont. History has never had such a bloody slaughter, and the whole world is still terrified of seeing this poor prince after spending most of the day in the riches and glory of the world, giving at last, the spirit beneath the sword’s edge, swimming in the blood of his whole family.”
Del Chiaro:
“After the tragedy, the Sultan walked away, and the heads of the slain were carried through the city, on the rods. There was a lot of people around these corpses, and the great visionary, fearing a rebellion, for the Turks themselves were terrified of such injustice, ordering the discarding of the corpses into the sea, from where, hiddenly, they were fished by a few Christians and buried in a deep, a monastery called “Halchi”, not far from Constantinople. In what anguish the miserable Lady was wrestling when the news of her beloved husband and her dear sons was brought to her, can anyone imagine it! I, who in four uninterrupted years had the honor of being in the intimacy of these princes, can not remember this terrible tragedy without tears.”
The martyrdom of the Holy Martyrs Brancoveni, Constantine Voda together with his four sons, Constantin, Stephen , Radu, Matthew and Counselor Ianache, is a moral victory of the Christian over the Muslim sultan. If Brâncoveanu’s apostasy, sultan Ahmed III (1703-1730) achieved a great victory over him, and the Ottoman Empire on Wallachia. The struggle won by the prince of Wallachia, and with him he won the country and his people. The martyrdom of the Lord is a part of the multi-secular mourning of the Romanian people, who paid the oppressors a great tribute – both money, and goods, and blood – in order to keep their country and law. Reigning wisely and with righteousness and dying as a martyr, Constantin Brâncoveanu honored himself, honoring alike the nation he was part of. In both the Land and abroad, his sacrifice and his family are a moment of affirmation of faith and love for God.