The Wise and Courageous Metropolitan Paisios II of Caesarea (1776-1871), the Spiritual Predecessor of Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia

Paisios was born in Farasa of Cappadocia in 1776 or 1777. In 1804 he became abbot of the Honorable Forerunner Monastery in Flaviana (Zincidere) and a teacher of the School for Priests (Seminary). He helped the Ecumenical Patriarchate in very bad times. He fought zealously to prevent proselytizing actions against the Romans, saw to the construction or repair of temples, founded schools, orphanages and girls' schools.

The head village of Cappadocia was the saint-bearing Varasos, better known as Farasa, which was the birthplace of two great Saints of the Church, Saint Arsenios of Cappadocia and his spiritual successor Saint Paisios the Athonite. And, as Mr. Lazaros M. Kelekidis writes in his book "Farasa of Cappadocia", it was Saint Paisios who made Farasa known and thanks to him the whole world learned that there in the depths of the East, there was a spring of inexhaustible Roman Orthodox spirituality, a beacon that shone with the unfading light of Orthodoxy.

Romanism and Costes Palamas

 

PREFACE

The lecture herein published is being offered in English translation as a means of allowing the descendants of the West Romans to take a preliminary glance at people in South East Europe and the Middle East who still call themselves Romans and sing songs and write poetry about themselves as Romans.

Much in this lecture is a summary of sections of a larger study which among other things examines why the Franks decided that the East Romans should not be called Romans.

This decision had a peculiar impact on a town in Cappadocia which gave two emperors to the empire. In some histories the first one is a Roman emperor because he ruled before Heraclius (610-641) and the second is supposedly a Byzantine emperor because he ruled after.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (Fr. John Romanides)

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers 

 

Orthodoxos Typos

25 March 1978

 

 By Protopresbyter Fr. John Romanides

 

(Translated by John Sanidopoulos)

 

PART ONE

 

PART TWO

 

PART THREE

 

PART FOUR

 

PART FIVE

 

PART SIX

 

PART SEVEN

 

PART EIGHT

 

PART NINE

 

PART TEN

 

PART ELEVEN

 

 

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (11 of 11)

Papa-Vlachavas as depicted at the Great Meteoron Monastery

...continued from part ten.

35. The Method is Simple

The method is simple. First the distinction of Kapodistrias between Greece, Macedonia and Epirus is accepted. At the same time the inhabitants of Greece are pressed through agents to accept that they are not Romans or Byzantines, but only Greeks, in order not to claim Constantinople as their own, nor hold on to Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace. This is why the Bulgarians maintain that when they came to the Balkans, Thrace was Roman or Byzantine and not Greek. Thus they maintain that since the Greeks aren't Byzantines, they wrongly occupy a portion of Thrace.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (10 of 11)

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

...continued from part nine.

32. Marxists Make a Caricature of Romiosini and Bombard the Caricature

Benefiting from the collapse of the philosophical, theological and social foundations of the Frankish and Russian civilizations, Marxists continually bombard the Christianity of Europe and Russia as a mighty factor in the subjugation of the serfs, without observing that the Frankish occupiers banished the Romans from the hierarchy and the abbacy, becoming themselves bishops and abbots in order to govern in this way within the Church the occupied Romans.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (9 of 11)

Galileo and his Inquisitors

...continued from part eight.

28. The Bankruptcy of the Metaphysics of European and Russian Theology

It is known that the philosophical metaphysical foundations of the Frankish and Protestant theological traditions, the philosophical foundations of which Koraes fanatically acted to introduce into Greece, have been demolished mainly due to the findings of the positive and social sciences to such an extent, that European Christianity is in danger of disappearing.

When Peter the Great westernized his state and the Church, the conflict between European theology and the positive sciences had already begun. Nevertheless Russian theology in imitation of Europe established philosophical metaphysical foundations to dogma with the result of destroying dogma when its philosophical foundations were destroyed. It thus became impossible in the Russian Church to deal with ideological situations, which led to the defenestration of Orthodoxy from the center of state ideology.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (8 of 11)

Greek-Turkish Population Exchange of 1924

...continued from part seven.

24. Koraes Wants the Romans to be the Greeklings of Europeans

Adamantios Koraes struggled to abolish the national name of Roman in order to replace it with "Greek", because, as he writes, "this is what all the enlightened nations of Europe call us."(18)

The dissolution and destruction of Romiosini was planned and promoted by the Franks and "curiously" appeared in the neograic circle of Adamantios Koraes and "strangely" included in the first constitutions of Greece, as we saw.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (7 of 11)

Medieval serfs working the land.

...continued from part six.

23. How Did the Russians Receive Their Plan

No one can doubt the amazing success of Tsarist Russia in dissolving Romiosini and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. But this begs the question: how did the Russians receive this plan?

The answer is: unfortunately from the example of the new Greek state, where the Europeans had inaugurated a similar design, which was applied by the Franks from the 9th century for the dissolution of Romiosini in the West.(15) What the Russians did in eastern Romiosini, approximately the same thing had been done by the Franks in western Romiosini.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (6 of 11)

...continued from part five.

19. Greek Television Promotes the Russian Plan

Indeed, every week Greek television presents a forged movie of Papadiamantis' The Gypsy Girl, which depicts Greeks before the Fall of Constantinople in Peloponnesos as seemingly being enslaved in Romiosini.(13) In order for people to not become indignant by this, the Romans are called Byzantines. Therefore, Greek television teaches our children through this movie that Greeks were enslaved in Constantinople and that the Hagia Sophia of Justinian the Great was a church of the enemies of the Greeks.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (5 of 11)

Adamantios Koraes

...continued from part four.

17. Why They Wanted the Destruction of Romiosini

The Europeans and especially the Russians knew well the times of 1828, that in the event the above-mentioned ecclesiastical Romiosini organized politically as a state according to the plans of Rigas Velestinlis or John Kapodistrias, it would pose as a threat to Russia itself and in time also to Europe.

There had already developed a large Romaiic commercial fleet under various state flags. A united Roumeli of the Balkans with their love for the sea handed down to them from their fathers would have very quickly become an appreciable strength - especially at a time when the nautical power of the British and the French had expanded worldwide, as well as the Spanish and the Portuguese, who had been dominated by Islam for many centuries. It is generally accepted that a large amount of the success of the revolution of 1821 depended on the nautical power of the nation.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (4 of 11)

John Kapodistrias and Rigas Velestinlis (or Pheraios)

...continued from part three.

12. The Russian Design and the Proposal of John Kapodistrias

Within this prism we must interpret the proposal of Russia in 1824: to divide the already microscopic, at that time, state of Greece into three autonomous principalities in imitation of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.(3) Bessarabia and the Crimea with its Romaiic population had already become a part of Russia.

Having this tactic of the Russians in view, as well as the plans of Rigas Velestinlis, John Kapodistrias, as soon as he received his duties as President of Greece in April of 1828, proposed to the Russians the establishment of the Balkan confederation of five autonomous states - Dacia, Serbia, Macedonia, Epirus and Greece - and the conversion of Constantinople into a free city.(4)

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (3 of 11)

...continued from part two.

8. Romans and Roumeli of 1821

In 1821 the Romans consisted of the overwhelming majority of the population in the Balkans.(2) Because of this, as before, the entire Turkish geographical area of Europe under the Ottoman Empire, namely the Balkans, continued to be called Roumeli, or the land of the Romans.

9. The Russians Go Against Romiosini

Despite this the Romans of the Balkans, united by the Church against so many hardships over the centuries, broke up, dissolved and assimilated because of propaganda and forged histories and became Romanians, Albanians and Greeks, while for those Romans who continued to know Slavonic the Russians established as separate states, such as Montenegro, Serbia and Bulgaria.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (2 of 11)

Peter the Great in foreign costume before his mother, 
Tsaritsa Natalya, Patriarch Andrian, and his tutor Zotov.

...continued from part one.

4. Romaic and Romaiic

For Greek-speakers, Vlach-speakers and Arvanitic-speakers this much was obvious, that Romiosini was always bilingual, with Latin initially as a language of the administration, and Greek as the written language. This bilingualism was maintained for 500 years before Constantine the Great moved the capital of Romiosini from Old Rome to Constantinople New Rome. For this reason eventually the same name was maintained, with Latin being called "Romaic" and Greek being called "Romaiic". That is, the same name with one iota (i) meant Latin, and with two iota's (ii) meant Greek. Vlach is Neo-Latin and Arvanitic is a mixed language primarily of Latin and Greek. Hence it was always the case that Vlach-speakers, Arvanitic-speakers and Greek-speakers were called Romans. It is complete nonsense for us to agree with the propaganda of the Great Powers that during the Turkish occupation the name Roman only had religious significance and not national.

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers (1 of 11)

The Romiosini of 1821 and the Great Powers

Orthodoxos Typos, 

25 March 1978

(Translated by John Sanidopoulos)

By Protopresbyter Fr. John Romanides

1. 1821 and the Objective of the Great Powers

In 1821 the Romans initiated a revolution, in order for the state of Romiosini to become once more Roman civilization, which they kept with pride and every form of sacrifice during the difficult years of the Turkish occupation, the Frankish occupation and the Arab occupation.

The Great Powers [Russia, France and Great Britain] however only wanted to weaken or destroy and not divide the Ottoman Empire. Neither did they want Romiosini as a state, nor as a civilization. For this reason no Roman with the plans for the Romiosini of Rigas Velestinlis ever received support and reinforcement from the Great Powers. Those who sought to become rulers of that Romiosini, were they who would accomplish either consciously or naively the breakup and dissolution not only of the Ottoman Empire, but also of Romiosini.

The Term "Romiosini" According to Fr. John Romanides

By Protopresbyter Fr. John S. Romanides

First we must have in mind that historically there was never a distinction between the so-called Byzantine Empire and the Roman Empire. Our ancestors only knew that they were citizens of the state known as Romania and that this state in the years of the greatest leader of Romiosini, Constantine the Great, spread throughout the entire Mediterranean area, which today covers England, Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, the Balkans, all of North Africa, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and the Russian coast of the Black Sea.

Saint Paisios as an Orthodox Romios

After Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria co-celebrated the all-night patriarchal vigil and Divine Liturgy at the Convent of Saint John the Theologian in Souroti today, where the grave of St. Paisios is located and his first feast was celebrated by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, among other Hierarchs and Clergymen, he returned to his own Metropolis, to the Church of Saint Nikanor the Wonderworker, where Saint Paisios was also celebrated with a procession, and offered a message to the faithful titled: "An Orthodox Romios: Characteristic Features of Saint Paisios". His message to the Greek people in these critical times can be summarized as follows:

The Last Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia of 1919

Papa Lefteris Noufrakis

It is commonly believed that the last Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople took place on May 28, 1453. However, the last Divine Liturgy to really take place in Hagia Sophia was on the 19th of January in 1919, which was officiated by Papa Lefteris Noufrakis (1872-1941) from Rethymno, Crete. The story of this historic event is below.

By Anthony E. Stivaktakis

Once my grandfather told me about a Cretan priest, a true lad, who in January 1919 liturgized under the thousand year old domes of Hagia Sophia!

He knew him well, because he was a military chaplain of the same Division he was in, the Division that later participated in the Asia Minor Campaign and arrived at the gates of Ankara, and drank water from the Sakarya! But alas! this cool water later turned into a hot fiery river of pain and suffering, that burned the hearts of all Greeks.

"The City Has Fallen", But It Also Lives (3 of 3)

...continued from part two.

4. The Siege and the Fall

The descriptions of the siege are horrifying. The combatants in the City were not many. The number of the combatants of both camps were very uneven. Emperor Constantine Palaiologos invited his secretary Sphrantzis to make an inventory of the men in the City who could bear arms. Sphrantzis found that "there were only four thousand nine hundred eighty-three available Greeks and just under two thousand foreigners. Constantine was amazed by the numbers and told Sphrantzis not to publish them." The Ottoman army consisted of about eighty thousand men and rebel hordes.

The valor of the besieged was great. The Emperor fought as a simple soldier. But it seems that the Genoese showed a neutrality in critical moments of the struggle, and sought peace and agreement with the Sultan. Emperor Constantine was proposed to escape from the City, but he refused. "He was so tired, so that at the time of speaking he fainted. When he recovered, he told them again that he could not abandon his people. He would die with them."

"The City Has Fallen", But It Also Lives (2 of 3)

Sultan Mehmet II and Patriarch Gennadios Scholarios

...continued from part one.

3. The Causes of the Fall of Constantinople

There is a brilliant work by the Byzantinist Steven Runciman called The Fall of Constantinople, in which one can find many essential elements to understand both the causes that led to the fall of the Queen City, as well as the facts and events that preceded the fall and followed it. We will look at the most important of them to understand these events.

There were two main causes for the fall of Constantinople.

"The City Has Fallen", But It Also Lives (1 of 3)

May is the month of Constantine the Great, and his city Constantinople. On May 11th we commemorate the inauguration of Constantinople by Constantine the Great in 330, on May 21st we remember Saint Constantine the Great as a God-crowned king and equal of the Apostles together with his mother Helen, and on May 29th we experience the pain of the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

The City of Constantinople "has fallen", according to the lament of the fall, and the royal throne of the Romans is gone, but its soul, known as Romiosini, is a sacred relic that has been divided throughout the world as a source of inspiration for Orthodox Christians. Romiosini is the inherited culture of Orthodox Christians everywhere, despite the defiance of some who try to present it as something nationalistic, dark or even a dead period of history, even going so far as to change its name (from a Roman Empire to a Byzantine Empire) to erase its remembrance from history and make it elusive, exotic and foreign.

In the hope of restoring the value of the glorious past of Romiosini, and its future not only as a culture but also a lifestyle of Orthodox Christians everywhere, the following lecture by His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou is offered as a small tribute to disseminate the truth. It was delivered at an event honoring the fall of Constantinople at the Diakideio School of Patras in 2002.