Philothei, the Athenian Saint

In the sixteenth century, an Athenian noblewoman dares to defy the authority of Suleiman the Magnificent. She frees men and women from the slave markets, buying their liberation with her own fortune. She sets up the first school for women in early modern Greece and Europe, she founds a hospital, which offers free treatment to Greek, Turks, and Franks alike, she provides refuge for abused women. Her activity riles the conquerors and the prevailing state of things. She is taken to prison, tortured and put to death as a martyr in 1589. A revolutionary long before the Greek Struggle for Independence, she is Philothei, the Athenian saint.