Germanos of Patras

Germanos (George Gotzias, known as Palaion Patron Germanos 1771-1826) was an Orthodox Metropolitan of Patras.

Germanos was born in Dimitsana, northwestern Arcadia, Peloponnese. Before his consecration as Metropolitan of Patras by Patriarch Gregory V, he had served as a priest and Protosyngellus in Smyrna.

Greek Revolution

Tradition was that on March 25, 1821, Bishop Germanos blessed a Greek flag at the Monastery of Agia Lavra and proclaimed the national uprising against the Ottoman empire.[1][2][3] Another revolt of Greek War of Independence had also been declared on February 21 by Alexandros Ypsilantis in Iaşi.

However, there are a few historians arguing that the core of this tradition might not be untrue, based on some personal archives of Greek revolution fighters maintaining that Germanos performed a doxology and administered an oath to some kocabaşıs and bishops of Morea on March 17, the day of celebration for the Agia Lavra Monastery. Yet, Germanos says in his memoirs that "those gathered decided not to give rise to suspicions and they took refuge to shelters, because they were afraid". What is sure is that they left knowing that a revolution was about to start. [4] Germanos died in 1826 at Nafplion.

References

  1. ^ "Greek Independence Day.". www.britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1436276/Greek-Independence-Day. Retrieved 2009-09-09. "The Greek revolt was precipitated on March 25, 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the flag of revolution over the Monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese. The cry “Freedom or Death” became the motto of the revolution. The Greeks experienced early successes on the battlefield, including the capture of Athens in June 1822, but infighting ensued." 
  2. ^ Frazee, Charles A. (1969). The Orthodox Church and independent Greece, 1821-1852. CUP Archive. pp. 18–20. ISBN 0521072476. "On 25 March, Germanos gave the revolution its great symbol when he raised a banner with the cross on it at the monastery of Ayia Lavra." 
  3. ^ McManners, John (2001). The Oxford illustrated history of Christianity. Oxford University Press. pp. 521–524. ISBN 0192854399. "The Greek uprising and the church. Bishop Germanos of old Patras blesses the Greek banner at the outset of the national revolt against the Turks on 25 March 1821. The solemnity of the scene was enhanced two decades later in this painting by T. Vryzakis….The fact that one of the Greek bishops, Germanos of Old Patras, had enthusiastically blessed the Greek uprising at the onset (25 March 1821) and had thereby helped to unleash a holy war, was not to gain the church a satisfactory, let alone a dominant, role in the new order of things." 
  4. ^ History of the Greek Nation, v. 12, p. 82

See also