SerbianOrthodoxChurch.net
He lived in asceticism at Hilandar, where he became abbot. When he sought a debt due to the monastery from some Turks, they per-suaded a Moslem woman to go into the house where Damascene lived. The Turks then came and found the woman, and dragged Damascene off before the judge. He was given the alternative: hanging or conversion to Islam, to which he replied decisively: `It would be foolishness were I for temporal life to buy eternal peril.' He was hangedin 1771 in Svishtov. So Damascene sacrificed his life to save his soul. But his murderers immediately met God's punish-ment. They got into a boat to cross the Danube, but suddenly a storm capsized them and they drowned.
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