Born of poor parents in Dimitsana Greece Ecumenical Patriarch Grigorios the 5th had a meteoric rise in the Greek Clergy and was a brilliant and active member of the church.
He was first named Patriarch in 1797 and was dethroned and exiled twice. In 1818 he was elected Patriarch for the third time but was shortly in a difficlut position due to the outbreak of the Greek Revolution. The Turks pressured him to disavow the revolution and brand the participants as heretics He was improsoned and hanged on Easter Day Aproil 10, 1821 and his body left to hang for three days exposed to the wrath of the Turkish crowds.