Archbishop: “When the Enlightenment dominated the West, we here had the Neomartyrs”

In the presence of Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and all Greece the events for the celebration of the bicentenary of the Greek Revolution took place yesterday in the Holy Monastery of Saint Nikolaos of Kaltezes of Arcadia.

In the morning the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist was performed by Metropolitan Alexandros of Mantineia and Kynouria, with Metropolitan Chryssostomos of Patras and Bishop Theokletos of Teghea co-officiating.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy, the Archbishop sent up a Doxology in honour of the Fighters who took part in the Peloponnesian Senate, convoked in the Monastery of Kaltezes. Subsequently, the Panegyric of the day was delivered by Professor Athanassios Christou of Contemporary History at the University of the Peloponnese.

The Archbishop expressed his joy to be present at the specific historic site and noted that “the ideas of the Europeans helped us conquer our freedom and we do not deny the fact that they helped us, but when the act took place here, at this very point, the idea of the Enlightenment did not exist among the Greeks. When the Enlightenment dominated the West, we here had the Neomartyrs. We had those who swore that their fight would be for the faith in Christ and for the fatherland”.

State dignitaries attended.

The Assembly of Kaltezes convened in the end of May 1821 and specifically on the 26^th of the month, at the initiative of the Messenian specially summoned council in the Monastery of the same name. During the proceedings of the Assembly Petrobeys Mavromihalis discharged the duties of President and Regas Palamidis those of Secretary.

The Assembly issued an Act in which it proclaimed the election of the Peloponnesian Senate, which continued its proceedings until the definitive abolition of local bodies by the 2^nd National Assembly on March 30, 1823.