Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian Worker

by M. Golden

For the first time in the ecclesiastical history of the Greek Kingdom, a Metropolite abdicated from his throne, rejected by his closest friends, helpless under the anathema of the people, above whom he was called to be the spiritual leader, his life imperilled by the injured public sentiment, Procopios, left a real wreck cast by the shore, as a warning sign of those dangers to which every public man is exposed, when corrupted by higher favours and neglects his duties to the people who entrusted him with responsibilities of national importance.

This incident, which I hope will never occur again, and many other minor opportunities, in which I had a part to play, during that fateful Queen Olga's attempt to adulterate the beautiful and pure Attic Greek language, gave me the exceptional privilege to study all the works of the political machinery in Greece. I have seen the drama enacted behind the scenes. It is a dreadful drama that could break the neck of the strongest long-suffering. The awful drama that is enacted in Greece at the expenses of the people is a long, very long story; perhaps it has its beginning with the reign of King George and Queen Olga, I will not say, but the people of Greece, the poorest people of Europe, are contented and well pleased that they have a King who is a great diplomat, and he is one of the richest Kings in Europe, and their Queen, Olga, they believe (the ignorant do) that she is a saintly woman (as all the Russian saints are), and this ignorant Greek people, they simply feel glad to leave their homes and their children and go into war, like sheep into the butcher's shop, sacrifice their lives, thus destroying their homes and the hopes of their loved ones, every time King George calls them to arms to fight against the Turks. And King George has always a great patriotic cause to fight the Turks. And the Greeks could not appreciate more highly a privilege than to fight and die for the deliverance of their brethren in Crete and for the salvation of the unfortunate Christians in Macedonia.

Yet, for half a century, in fact, since King George came to Greece, there are hundreds of thousands of the best Greek patriots that have been killed, slain, or assassinated, and nearly a billion drachmas national debt, hanging upon the neck of every Greek, like the Damoclean sword, but there is no deliverance for the Cretans, and there is no salvation for the Macedonians, instead there are the traps strategically placed across the Greek borders, so, every time the Greek patriots, in answer to the call of their King, are sent to render a helping hand to the sufferers, they cross the border, only to find, but too late, that they have been trapped, under the sword of the enemy, the Turk; or they are left at the mercy of their assassins, the Bulgars. This drama is going on repeatedly with great success, and to the amusement of the observing great powers of Europe.

Occasionally there is some crippling of the territory already belonging to the possessions of Greece, because the places are of some strategical importance, and this reason is enough, that they should be taken away from the Greeks. And there is a financial commission appointed by the great powers, because King George is a great diplomat and he wants to be sure that his allowance is coming to him increasingly, every year, from the coffers of the Greek treasury, while the international commission should count every penny that the Greek expends in bread for his children.

In the evolution of events, I believe, that there is a time coming, when the Greek people shall rise, from the lethargy, in which they unnaturally are slumbering, for a long time, and they shall awake and break every fetter, and shake off their feet every chain, and their eyes shall be opened and they shall see things that will horrify them as a nation; then shall they know the persons responsible for their sufferings and for the sufferings of the Cretans and Macedonians and why Carditses was beheaded in a dungeon, without giving him the privilege of free citizenship, to prove his reason or his sanity, without any chance to protect his life; and where and by whom that plot was framed up, just to turn the tide of public anger against a royal gang, thus causing the destruction of two beautiful Greek girls, that left alone in the world to suffer from consumption, in agony, to die with the stigma as sisters of a would-be royal assassin. It was my privilege to take care of these two unfortunate sisters, both suffering, and the story of these two girls and the uprising of the Greek people against the adulteration of their language by Queen Olga, settled my determination to fight for the rights of my own people and my beloved country. But, the time for the Greek people to stand up and walk on their own feet, shall come when the prophecy of the great patriot Adamantios Korais, is no more prophecy, but in reality the Greek people will be regenerated in Christ, and there and then shall be a great Greek nation, not only within the boundaries of the feudatory of King George, but within the bounds of love that unites all the millions of people that speak the historical Attic Greek language, and a great Greek nation shall attract the attention of all the civilized world, once more as in the days of old.

I know the dangers in which I am exposed for the step I have taken, because, I know the character and the principles of the Greek people, perhaps, as well as any living Greek, the demagogues, the priests, the church, and the drones and parasites of the royal gang, they each and every one and all together are going to use all their power and money that is at their disposal, and with no regards as to the honesty of means they shall move earth and hell to quench this movement for the regeneration of the Greek people, but having all my trust upon the Almighty and Omnipotent God, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, Who died that all men may be happy, and in the right Spirit of love to God and to my fellow men, I dare launch the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association.

Every Greek of reputable character, and all the lovers of the Greek ancient and modern history, are eligible to membership. It is my purpose to endeavor by all the Christian means to bring the Greek and American people into a mutual, intellectual and intelligent understanding. It has been my experience in studying conditions for the last six years, that the Greeks in the United States know very little or nothing of the American history, government, political, social, customs and habits of the American people, which, also, unfortunate as it may appear, yet it is the truth, that only a very limited number of Americans whom I have found all over the United States, are well informed of the doings in Greece, and still fewer well acquainted and unprejudiced as to the historical and classical importance of the Greek nation.

It is estimated that there are about 300,000 Greek people in the United States, representing the 12,000,000 of Greek-speaking people that is the Greek nation extended all around the Mediterranean countries.

When it is considered that the vast majority of the Greeks in the United States, has never had any opportunity to attend a Christian meeting, or hear the Gospel preached in their own language, it is to their credit that, with all the temptations and the ambiguous associations which the laboring class is often in contact with they have not been worse than they are; it is an indication that the primitive and strong character of the Greek seldom yields to temptation; they hold fast to their historical energy and honesty.