By John Sanidopoulos
Neophytos Kavsokalyvites (1689-1784) was a Greek monk and ecclesiastical writer, who initiated the movement known as the Kollyvades Movement. He was born in Patras when it was under Venetian occupation and where the economic and social situation was very bad, with increased taxes, and with the brutalities and abuses of Turkish officers. In Patras there was a Jewish community who were active commercially. In time these Jews married Greeks, thus becoming Christianized. It was to such a family that Neophytos was born, which is why he is often referred to as "Neophytos of the Jews". Neophytos was educated in the schools of Constantinople, Patmos and Ioannina, having as teachers Gerasimos Byzantios in Patmos and the wise Eugenios Voulgaris in Ioannina, where he specialized in rhetoric, logic, grammar, science and theology. He became a monk at the Skete of the Holy Trinity, known as Kavsokalyva, on the Holy Mountain of Athos after his studies in Constantinople, arriving at Mount Athos in 1723. Whether he arrived there as a Deacon or became a Deacon there is not known, though it is probably the latter. He was at Patmos from 1739 to 1744, then after studying in Ioannina he returned to Mount Athos.
