Every year during the last third of June we piously kneel before the heroic memory of the men and women of Mani who bravely and intelligently faced Ibrahim and the Egyptians in 1826. The Egyptian prince came to help the troops of the Sultan suppress the Greek Revolution. He seized almost the whole of the Peloponnese but could not subjugate the peninsula of Mani. He tried twice, in June and in August of 1826. He knew that Mani provided warriors to the rest of Greece.
However, he counted without the war experience of the inhabitants of that rocky peninsula and their sense of pride. They had the obligation to preserve the heritage of ancient Lacedæmonians and of Leonidas of Sparta. In their folk songs they called themselves “grandchildren of ancient Spartans”. On June 22-24, Ibrahim endeavoured a twin attack: first, at Verga of Almyros, a few kilometres off Kalamata and secondly, as a distraction, at Diros, to the South. In the first case, the Maniats prevailed thanks to their bravery and the speed at which they constructed a fortifying wall. In the second battle, that at Areopolis (Tsimova), Haria and Diros, the surprise came from the women of all ages. It was the time of harvesting and the Maniat women repelled the Egyptians with the sickles they heled in their hands ! Ibrahim utterly failed to subjugate the indomitable Mani.
We remember the names of the leading figures and those who inspired victory: Bishop Iosseph Voudiklaris of Maini (Mani), Protosynkellos Reganakos, Archimandrite Daniel Kouloufakos, Elias Katsis Mavromichalis, the legendary “Pierraina”, mother of Petrobey (Petros) Mavromichalis, the eighteen-year-old shooter Loukis Loukeas, the son of Petrobey Demetrios, Panoria Voziki, and others.
As the late historian Sarandos Kargakos notes, “despite ca. 1,000 cannon fire shots discharged by the Egyptian ships for intimidation, nothing could check the thrust of the Maniat men and women”.
Victory or death! This was the motto painted upon the revolutionary banner of Mani with the light blue cross on it.
Picture: from the celebration of the anniversary of the Battle at Verga (1826) | Press Office of the Holy Metropolitanate of Mani
