Greece before Emperor Constantine (49 - 325) - Byzantine Empire (325 - 1453) - Greece during the Turkish occupation (1453 - 1821) - Greek Revolt (1821 - 32) - National period of Greek history (1832 - 2000)
Greece before Emperor Constantine (49 - 325 AD)
By the time of Christ's Resurrection, Greece had been part of the Roman Empire for two hundred years. Rome absorbed the legacy of her past, that is, the remnants of the classical period. What we call today's Greece became the crossroads connecting Roman-occupied Asia Minor, its European colonies, and Rome itself. All roads did not just lead to Rome. These were well-defended roads for privileged categories of citizens, such as St. Pavel; he traveled through Asia Minor, Macedonia (modern Greece), Rome, and even reached Europe, preaching the gospel of Christ.
Greek Christianity arose mainly through the missionary work of St. Paul. After his conversion, on the way to Damascus, the Apostle traveled all over Asia Minor from Antioch to Cyprus and north to the western coast of present-day Turkey, spreading the gospel message. While he was in ancient Troas, he had a dream in which God commanded him to go to Macedonia. From 49 to 52 St. Paul was preaching Christianity among the pagans of Macedonia. He founded small church communities in Greece - in Neapolis (Kavala), Philippi, Berea (Veria), Thessaloniki, Athens and Corinth. These were the first steps towards the conversion of all Greece to Christianity. one
Among the people who spoke Greek, other apostles and disciples of the Lord also worked, including St. Jason and St. Sosipater of the seventy, in 37 they brought the light of the gospel to Corfu; St. John the Evangelist and St. Procopius (they preached on Patmos and Ephesus); St. Barnabas and St. Mark (together with St. Paul), who converted the population of Cyprus; St. Andrew - he preached and was crucified in Patras, and St. Luke, who traveled a lot with the Apostle Paul and later rested not far from present-day Thebes.
For another three hundred years after the Resurrection of Christ, the Church struggled for survival under the conditions of persecution that periodically arose on the territory of the Roman Empire. In some cases, persecution (especially those carried out by the emperors Domitian, Licinius, Hadrian, Diocletian and Maximian) led to the widespread destruction of Christian communities. Sometimes there were local persecutions. And although periods of persecution usually alternated with periods of calm, the threat of persecution was always present. We know many of the martyrs of those times by name. Among those whose relics now rest in Greece are: sshmuch. Hierofey, sshmuch. Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Jason and St. Sosipater, St. Eleutherius and St. Anfia, St. Polycarp, mts. Paraskeva of Rome, St. vmuch. Charalambius, St. Christopher, sshmuch. Cyprian and mts. Justina, muchch. Timothy and Maura, virgin martyr Anisia of Thessalonica, vmuch. Panteleimon, vmts. Barbara, Rev. Parthenius, Bishop of Lampsaki, vmuch. Dimitri, vmts. Catherine of Alexandria, vmuch. Theodore Tyrone and vmuch. Theodore Stratilat, sshmuch. Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste.
Byzantine Empire (325 - 1453)
The beginning of the period of the Byzantine Empire is associated with the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great (306 - 337). In 312, Constantine, riding into the battlefield at a place called Saxa Rubra, eight miles northeast of Rome, saw a glowing cross in the sky and the words : Sim win. Victory in that battle brought him the title of sole ruler of the Roman Empire, a victory that he owed to the intercession of the Christian God. On the next year he and his co-ruler Licinius issued the Edict of Toleration, thus protecting Christians from persecution, and later converted to Christianity himself.
Constantine moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to one of the cities of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). This decision was dictated not only by political and economic considerations; The Christian faith, growing more and more in his heart, moved the Emperor to break with Roman paganism. In 330, at the ceremony of naming the new capital Constantinople, the Emperor announced that pagan sacrifices would never be performed in this city. Less than half a century later, Emperor Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity the state religion. Constantinople became the most beautiful pearl in the diadem of the Greek Empire, playing the role of a spiritual and national center. Despite the fact that, after a thousand years, Byzantium ceased its political existence, in the minds of the Orthodox Greeks, this city to this day remains a kind of geographical axis around which their spiritual life revolves. 2
So the persecution ended, and Christianity began to spread rapidly. Temples were built, defined and formalized church tradition and doctrines that came from ancient times. As expected, having become the state religion, Christianity attracted the attention of ambitious people who followed fashion in everything and were indifferent to faith itself. As an alternative to secular life in the cities, monasticism appeared and began to rapidly gain strength. In the fourth century, ascetic hermits appeared in Egypt, and then very soon male and female monastic communities arose in all corners of the Roman Empire. The first monks in Egypt were St. Anthony the Great - the founder of monasticism († 356), St. Pachomius the Great († 348) and St. Macarius the Great († c. 390). Among those who brought the monastic charter to the West and organized cenobitic monasteries, one of the first were St. Basil the Great († 379) and his sister St. Macrina († 380). Monasticism served as a counterbalance to the ever-increasing formalization of church life, a living reminder that the Kingdom of God is not of this world. Even today, people who are getting to know Orthodoxy are often attracted both by the ancient monastic spiritual literature and the testimonies of contemporary monks.
During the reign of Constantine, the period of the Ecumenical Councils (325-787) began; the first six defined the outer, organizational structure Churches and fundamental tenets of the Christian faith, in particular those concerning the nature and incarnation of Christ and the theology of the Holy Trinity. At the Seventh Ecumenical Council, icon veneration, which had been forbidden for a whole century during the period of iconoclasm, was restored. This period is the heyday of patristic theology. Written works of St. Athanasius the Great, the Cappadocian Fathers of the fourth century - Saints Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Gregory of Nyssa, as well as St. John Chrysostom, who wrote at the beginning of the fifth century, contributed to the approval of church dogmas and the understanding of Holy Scripture. To this day, their works are considered the basis of the Orthodox tradition.
In an era of stability that lasted for several centuries, magnificent temples and monasteries were built throughout the territory of the Byzantine Empire. Amazing examples of Byzantine architecture have survived to this day - for example, in Nea Moni on the island of Chios, in Osiou Loukas (near Thebes), Panagia Ateniotissa in Daphni. The largest church in the entire Christian world - the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople - was also built during this early period, and despite the fact that since the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 it has been used as a mosque and museum, Christians treat it with reverence, understanding its importance in the history of Orthodoxy. Thousands of the righteous labored for the salvation of their souls during the millennia of Byzantine rule, and the grace of the Holy Spirit resting on them filled this land.
Byzantine Christians strove for integrity and harmony in relations between the Church and the state. The Byzantine Emperor was anointed to the Kingdom as an autocratic and autocratic ruler. He was not just the head of the government. He could not share power with anyone, since he himself had to bear full responsibility. The Byzantines believed that in the end he would appear before God and give an answer for the spiritual and physical well-being of the Empire. According to the teachings of St. John Chrysostom, the Emperor had an almost mystical duty to resist evil, visible and invisible. On him alone fell the burden of spiritual responsibility as "the one who restrains, the one who does not allow the fulfillment of the 'mystery of iniquity, which is already in operation'." However, the autocratic power of the Emperor did not acquire the status of a church dogma. The emperor had the right (and duty) to defend the purity of the faith, speaking at church councils, but the decisive voice in matters of the Church and faith remained with the bishops. Conversely, church hierarchs were morally obligated to protest against state policy if it ran counter to the principles of Christian morality or the interests of the Church, but the final decision remained with the Emperor.
Yet human nature often prevailed. The emperors convened councils more than once, inviting mainly bishops from among their supporters. In this way they tried to consolidate their dogmatically preferred views. Nevertheless, if such councils officially proclaimed heresy, almost always after ten or twenty years this heresy was somehow refuted. And although the Emperors approved the appointment of new Patriarchs (and often appointed them themselves), changed the boundaries of church dioceses in their own interests and established laws regarding church organization, they could never independently proclaim dogmas. On the other hand, the Patriarch often helped (or deliberately did not help) a certain candidate for the Throne to sit on the throne and provided him and his policy with the support of the Christian population. But when this unity of ecclesiastical and imperial power began to serve personal ambitions or was used in support of heretical teachings, when the authorities deviated from the righteous path, the voice of reproof always sounded, emanating, among other things, from such lamps as St. Athanasius the Great, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Cyril of Alexandria. The proverb “the voice of the people is the voice of God” has found confirmation more than once. Shortly before the end of the Empire, two Byzantine Emperors, desperate for a political union with the Catholic West, invited carefully selected bishops to the councils at Lyon (1274) and Ferrara/Florence (1430), who were instructed to vote for reunification with Rome. In both cases, the reunification with Rome was officially proclaimed, but was soon recognized as premature and refuted by the united voices of the laity and the clergy of Byzantium.
Harry Magoulias in his book Byzantine Christianity notes: “[Constantine’s conviction that] the perversion of dogmas could bring the wrath of God on the Empire and lead to the destruction of the state ... was a problem that pagan emperors never faced .... The emperor of pagan Rome was also at the same time the chief religious official of the state. ( pontifex maximus) and a secular ruler, but the question of a pagan church and pagan orthodox dogma never existed. Konstantinov's World brought the highest responsibility of the Emperor on earth to another dimension. Constantine clearly understood that the Christian Monarch was also responsible for the welfare of the Christian Church; he inextricably linked the prosperity of the Church with the fate of the state…. The main duty of the Byzantine Emperor was to lead his subjects to God and protect the purity of the true faith. 3
Thus, striving to achieve the Kingdom of God, the Empire lived and breathed as a single spiritual organism. The thousand-year history of Byzantium shows that although fallen human nature, personal interests and ambitions did not allow bearing a full-fledged fruit in earthly life, it was still a wonderful attempt. The grace received by the personal spiritual heroism of Christians, the development of Christian social consciousness, great literature and art - this is the legacy that we have inherited from those times.
Even in the era of the highest prosperity, Byzantium suffered from external enemies who were not averse to profiting at its expense, and from natural disasters that devastated it. The endless attacks of the Goths and Huns in the 4th - 5th centuries, the mass immigration of the Slavs, combined with the raids of the Avars in the 6th - 7th centuries, devastated the continental part of Greece. In 540, a plague epidemic destroyed a third of the population of Byzantium; the rise of the Bulgar Khanate with constant raids on the border regions in the 7th century, as well as seven centuries of slave trade and piracy along its coast - all this played a role in the weakening of the "Second Rome".
Pirates have been a terrible scourge for Byzantium for centuries. Later, they robbed only for personal enrichment, but at the time when the Arabs first appeared in the 7th century, piracy became part of their military strategy to destroy the sovereignty of Byzantium at sea. By the middle of the ninth century they had captured Tarsus, Alexandria, Tripoli (Syria) and Crete, and from there carried out plundering raids on the Byzantine coastal cities and islands. They sailed in slow, heavy craft called kubaria, their attacks were carefully planned and well organized. Many of the islands of the Aegean, the Southern Sporades and the islands of the Saronic Gulf remained abandoned and uninhabited for centuries. The pirates used them as staging posts to replenish their drinking water supplies and to rest the slaves they captured, which they brought to North Africa for sale. The catastrophic situation caused by the attack of the Arabs in the 19th century was taken advantage of by the Bulgarians and Russians, who made large-scale raids on these islands in long boats hollowed out of tree trunks.
In the 10th century, the Byzantine military leader Nicephorus Foka, who later became Emperor (963 - 969), liberated Crete and thereby saved the inhabitants of the islands and the coast of the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean from the stranglehold of the Arabs. A cloudless period of stability lasted for two whole centuries, but since Byzantium fought for survival after the ruinous Fourth crusade, pirates reigned on the sea again. This time they were not just Muslim Arabs, but professional mercenaries from Genoa, Italy, Normandy, Rhodes, Monemvasia and other Byzantine islands, as well as Turks and Greeks; they sold their services to wealthy rulers and states, and were employed by both Byzantium and its enemies. When they weren't working for whoever hired them, they robbed for themselves. Among the victims of those raids were saints - St. Theoktist (he escaped to the island of Paros and lived there as a hermit), St. Ephraim the New Martyr, Mother Superior of Olympias with her nuns, Sts. Nicholas, Raphael and Irina, the monastery of Takhiarches on the island of Mytilini and many Athos monks, brutally tortured and killed. Sea robbery continued in the XIII - XV centuries. It was controlled by the Turks and Venetians who then dominated the sea.
Surprisingly, but true: in those outwardly turbulent times, spirituality flourished. Monasticism spread rapidly. Byzantologists claim that by the 8th century more than half population were people who had taken monastic vows. 4 There were many canonized saints. During a period of apparent political decline, church art reached unprecedented heights: embroidery, sewing of church vestments, metal work, frescoes and icon painting rose to a level that was unthinkable in former calmer times. The Church and the Emperor were intensively engaged in charity work, especially in the last centuries of the Empire's existence: they opened and maintained homes for orphans and the poor, almshouses, hospices, and hospitals.
The Great Schism, that is, the schism in the Church in 1054, as a result of which the Latin West broke away from the Orthodox East, dealt a severe blow to Christian unity, which has not been restored to this day: Rome still remains separated from the Christian world. 
In addition, participants in the Fourth Crusade on their way to the Holy Land in 1204 sacked Constantinople, killed many Orthodox Christians and desecrated their churches. The Venetians and the Franks divided vast areas of the Byzantine Empire among themselves (in some places for centuries), and the Greeks did not forget this betrayal. The capital of the Empire was recaptured in 1261 by Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, but in 1453 it fell again under the blows of the Turks. The Byzantine Empire ended its existence.
Greece during the Turkish occupation (1453 - 1821)
During the period of Turkish occupation, Greece found itself at the epicenter of a centuries-old rivalry between the Turks and the Venetians for control of the Mediterranean. Continental Greece and Asia Minor remained under Turkish rule until the revolt of 1821, and the islands of the Aegean and Ionian Seas constantly changed sides.
The desire of the Turks to expand was partly due to the Islamic tradition of holy war - jihad. Since the 7th century, Muslim tribes have been combing the entire Middle East, exterminating and subjugating the local Christian, Jewish and Persian populations through physical extermination, forced conversion to Islam, or merciless social and economic pressure. They called Christians and Jews "People of the Book" (the Qur'an mentions them as people of the same spiritual origin as Muslims) and generally treated them less ruthlessly than pagans. If Christians and Jews did not offer armed resistance to the invaders (punished by mass executions, robbery and enslavement), they received dhimmitude- "protected" social status. The need to pay the soldiers and support the Sultan with his entire court by robbing the local population forced the invaders to constantly expand the boundaries of the occupied territories. And since only Muslims were allowed to fight in the ranks of the invaders in order to expand the territories, the conquered peoples were used as agricultural workers, taxpayers and suppliers of skilled labor capable of creating art objects to increase the level of civilization of the Islamic state.
Muslim tradition dhimmituda prescribed the renunciation of the forced conversion of the "protected" people; he was allowed to freely practice his faith as long as he peacefully submitted to the authority of the Muslims. 5 Nevertheless, a subordinate, humiliated position was imposed on him, non-Muslim residents were often called raya, that is, "livestock", labor force fit for exploitation. Although the Turkish yoke was not as cruel as the power of Muslim Arabs in the Middle East before, between Muslims and dhimmi- Christians and Jews - there were significant social differences. At the beginning of their reign, the Turks imposed on the Greeks a series of prescriptions that reminded them of their lower status. It was forbidden, for example, to show disrespect for Islam, its writings and its representatives. The houses of Christians could not be higher than the houses of their Muslim neighbors. Christians were not allowed to wear Muslim clothes; moreover, sometimes they were required to wear certain clothes and shoes that emphasized their difference. Dhimmi they were not allowed to carry weapons and ride horses (although in practice both weapons and horseback riding were often permitted in Greece). In court, the word of a Christian could never be more important than the word of a Muslim. A Christian man could not marry a Muslim woman, although a Muslim man could marry a Christian woman. Christian temples were forbidden to be built and repaired without permission, as well as decorated: they were not supposed to attract the attention of devout Muslims and attract worshipers in mosques in the neighborhood. Bell ringing was either banned or strictly controlled. Missionary work was associated with great problems, since the conversion of a Muslim was considered a serious crime.
Non-Muslims, in principle, could not serve in the Sultan's army. This can hardly be considered an infringement of rights, although Christians had to pay a poll tax as compensation, called kharaj. In addition, an army consisting of only Muslims was an ideal, but in practice everything looked completely different. Christians from the Balkans and other European countries served the sultans not only as mere mercenaries, but even as officers and advisers who trained Turkish troops in European methods of warfare.
In the first two centuries after the conquest, there was a despotic practice, hated by the people, called devshirme("tax on children"): every four years, a detachment of representatives of the Sultan traveled around the territories controlled by Muslims and selected the strongest and most capable Christian boys. They were taken to Constantinople, forcibly converted to Islam, and after severe training they became administrators or served in the Sultan's elite troops, which consisted entirely of recruits. devshirme called Janissaries. They were engaged in an inappropriate business for Christians - they suppressed uprisings dhimmi and conquered new Christian lands for Muslims. Janissaries terrified the local population. In some places, boys were taken only from families of aristocrats or priests. After training, many of them served as administrators and reached high positions on the scale of the empire. Over the centuries, most grand viziers (prime ministers) and other dignitaries have come from the ranks of devshirme as well as the great Muslim architects, artists and craftsmen. In the middle of the 17th century, the recruitment of Christian children into the Janissary units was stopped, as many Muslims sought to get into these troops and receive the lifelong salary due to the Janissaries.
Despite Muslim restrictions, there was a thriving Greek Christian merchant class centered in Constantinople. Some of these Christians amassed great wealth and maintained a stable economic and cultural community under Turkish rule. The price was the work of Christian artisans, artists and architects, in addition, Christians performed an important function of advisers in the Muslim government. Many of the sultans relied on their skill in doing business; international commercial enterprises under the leadership of the Christians of Constantinople brought large trade and tax profits to the Turkish treasury.
Nevertheless, the invaders had material and social advantages, and it is not surprising that the weakest Orthodox Christians, especially those who, due to a certain class affiliation or lack of education, could not achieve prosperity and relative independence (which existed in such places as, for example, Christian Phanar region in Constantinople), often converted to Islam. This step was irreversible. Apostasy from Islam was punishable by death, and so many "new martyrs" appeared: those who were mistaken for Muslim converts and those who publicly repented of their renunciation of Orthodoxy. The strictness of observance of Muslim requirements depended on the will of the local Turkish ruler, and the range of unofficial privileges for Orthodox Christians varied in different regions.
The Turks in a relatively short period of time captured vast territories, and they lacked neither the strength nor the ability to manage such a large and diverse population as the peoples of Greece and Asia Minor. They found a way out - they decided to divide the country on religious grounds into millets. Ruling millet was, of course, Muslim. The Orthodox Christian millet was next in importance, followed by Armenian, Jewish, Roman Catholic, and in the 19th century even Protestant.
When in 1453 Mehmed (Mohammed) II captured Constantinople, he placed on the patriarchal throne with the name Gennady II the respected lay theologian George Scholarios. The Sultan himself conferred this title on Scholarios in a magnificent ceremony. Scholarios (and later all the Patriarchs) swore allegiance to the Sultan and the Empire. In return, the sultan gave the patriarch civil and spiritual authority over the entire Orthodox Christian millet. Ironically, during the Turkish rule, the Church and the state were in even closer union than in the Byzantine period. The Church, in a sense, became a state, and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople became its head. The duty of the Patriarch to the Sultan was to control the collection of taxes. In addition, he had to observe the manifestation of any political disloyalty towards the Turkish authorities and quickly suppress it. Otherwise, he ruled alone, being completely dependent on the Sultan. Disputes between Christians were resolved by the church court. Everything else: education, inheritance laws, public organizations and religious activity were left at the mercy of the millet. 6 Usually, the Turks interfered little in the activities of local courts, since the Greek Christians had literally self-government. Till dhimmi regularly paid taxes and peacefully submitted to the Islamic authorities, no one touched them.
The millet system had its advantages and disadvantages. Under her, the Orthodox Greeks were a separate ethnic unit; it contributed to the preservation of Orthodoxy in the face of social pressure from Muslims. By celebrating the liturgy in Greek and making some efforts in the field of education, the Church helped the Greeks to survive as a people, although Turkish became the language of communication in most of Asia Minor and in some places in continental Greece.
Unfortunately, this system led to the fact that Orthodoxy in Greece was too closely intertwined with the national idea, and the perception of the universal essence of the Church was clouded. Even sadder is the fact that the corruption and bribery that flourished in the Turkish court has also infiltrated the Church. Only those who had rich patrons behind their backs could achieve a high position, since the sultans demanded a solid payment from each new bishop and patriarch for power in the Church. Among those who managed to ascend the patriarchal throne, there were, of course, sincere and pious people, but on the whole the atmosphere of those times contributed to the manifestation of less noble qualities. The patriarchs remained on the throne at most for several years, until a richer pretender offered his terms to the sultan (whose treasury was always in need of replenishment), after which the former patriarch was removed from the throne and replaced by a new one. The frequent change of patriarchs was clearly in the interests of the sultan, since this not only brought income, but also forced the new protege to take care of maintaining good relations with the sultan. At the same time, as the Turkish troops advanced deep into the Balkan lands, the possessions of the Ecumenical Patriarch expanded. The Turks seized Christian countries, and the autonomous local Churches of Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania forcibly became part of the Greek Patriarchate. At the height of Turkish influence, the millet, which included most of the Greeks, was joined by Orthodox Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, Vlachs and a significant part of the Arab population.
The decline of the Turkish yoke began already in the 17th century. The absence of an established form of transfer of power from one sultan to another increasingly led to fratricide in the family of the ruler. Those heirs who survived often found themselves prisoners in harems, where they received a superficial education and an extremely poor idea of \u200b\u200beverything that happens outside the walls of the harem. When they finally sat on the throne, they sometimes turned out to be only puppets; often the elder wife, the chief vizier, influential court eunuchs and janissaries fought among themselves for real power. The second factor that weakened the power of the Turks was a series of military defeats, after which the Turkish military expansion in Europe came to naught. The possibility of plundering the local population to support the Muslim troops was reduced, and the officers began to receive compensation in the form of large allotments of property. They became a class of landowners who now held most of the fertile land that had previously belonged to the Greeks. But although the Greeks had less agricultural land, taxes increased, as the income from robbery was no longer enough for the Turks, and the burden of maintaining the Turkish empire was gradually shifted more and more onto the shoulders of the "dhimmi". The third reason for the decline of the Turkish empire was the growing inability of the sultans to control the occupied territories. The Balkan peoples began to reassert de facto autonomy, and Turkish representatives such as Ali Pasha in northern Greece existed as rulers in their own right within the empire. In the wild unsettled regions of the Peloponnese, power in rural areas began to pass to local leaders. The laziness and corruption that reigned in the government completed the job.
Greek revolt (1821 - 1832)
Traditionally, the beginning of the Greek uprising is considered the day when Archbishop Germanos raised the flag of independence in the monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese. This flag was, no doubt, a powerful symbol - the icon of the Assumption of the Virgin, embroidered on the temple curtain. It was so significantly and deeply imprinted in the minds of those who fought under it that during all the years of the uprising, the Turks offered a large reward for this “dirty rag”. A few weeks before the flag was raised, preparations for an uprising began. Athonite monks joined the rebels who flocked to the north of Greece, and under the leadership of local leaders, the Central and Southern Peloponnese revolted.
There were several reasons for this abrupt transition to open rebellion after long centuries of occupation. One of them is the belief that Russia, as the Orthodox "Third Rome", is ready to rise up to defend the emerging national independence of the Greeks. The second reason was that many of the stubborn and restless Greek leaders of the Peloponnese were ordered by the sultan to appear in Tripoli, where, in their opinion, the representative of the sultan was to be tried and executed as "superpowerful figures." The third factor was the activities of the rebel group "Etaria Filike" ("Society of Friends"), which consisted mainly of intellectuals of Greek origin. They lived abroad and for a whole decade cherished plans for the liberation of their homeland.
The Turkish war machine was unable to suppress the widespread uprising that broke out. By the end of the summer of 1821, forty thousand Turks - inhabitants of the Peloponnese - were driven from the lands where many of them had lived for generations. In some places, the Greek rebels staged a massacre of the Turkish population. Sultan Mahmud II summoned his Egyptian vassal, the Albanian Mehemet Ali, the ruler of Egypt, promising him and his son Ibrahim power over the Peloponnese and Cyprus if they succeeded in subjugating the Peloponnese. Ibrahim's troops were well trained and mercilessly cruel. By 1822 they were already in control of most of the Peloponnese. For several years they retained an advantage, but in 1827 they cut off the lines of communication and delivery of everything necessary, after which the combined troops of England, France and Russia destroyed the Turkish fleet during the capture of Navarino Bay.
The guerrilla tactics of the rebels, who fought against the overly ordered, less maneuverable Turkish forces in the uneven, hilly terrain and mountains of central Greece, were generally successful. But when it became known about the cruelty of the Greeks towards the Turks in the Peloponnese, hundreds of prominent Greeks were publicly executed in Constantinople, Smyrna and Adrianople - church leaders, shopkeepers, merchants, artisans. In addition, as an act of retribution for the violence in the Peloponnese, the Turks razed the Anatolian city of Kydonis to the ground, slaughtering its entire population of forty thousand. One of the most horrifying scenes of Turkish retribution occurred during the Chios uprising in 1822. The Turks dealt with 25,000 Greeks, the inhabitants of this island; another 100,000 fled to the continent, and the rest—nearly all—were captured and sold into slavery. In total, 1,800 people remained from the 140,000 population of Chios.
The monks of Athos also suffered heavily. In an effort to avenge the uprising of the monks who sympathized with the rebels, 7 the Turks stationed their troops numbering three thousand people on the Holy Mountain, and for the next nine years the Turkish troops remained on Athos. A heavy burden fell on the monasteries: they had not only to maintain the troops, but also to supply them with a labor force from among the monastics. Six thousand monks lived on the Holy Mountain, and most of them were forced to leave from there to other monasteries. When the occupation ended in 1830, less than a thousand monks remained on Athos.
Meanwhile, the struggle of the Greek rebels reached a stalemate. The feuds between the Greek landowners, the robbers whom the people perceived as their leaders and heroes, the intellectuals and Phanariots living abroad (wealthy Greek merchants and officials in Constantinople) threatened to nullify all the efforts of the rebels, and in the end, the uprising was largely saved by European Greek allies. In May 1828, power passed to John Kapodistrias (1828-1831), the interim head of the disorderly provisional government of Greece, 8 and in May 1832 the leading European powers established a protectorate over Greece, recognizing it as a sovereign country and installing a young Bavarian as its first king. Prince Otto.
National period of Greek history (beginning 1832)
The country won independence, but things were not going well for the Church from the very beginning. Taking advantage of the fact that Mount Athos and the northern part of Greece were still in the hands of the Turks and could not stand up for themselves, the provisional government headed by John Kapodistrias (1828 - 1831) confiscated all Athos lands within the borders of the new Greek state. This included agricultural land outside the monastic territories, which were the main source of income. Kapodistrias did the same with other monasteries on the mainland, setting a precedent for a secularization that continued sadly well into the twentieth century. The bitter irony lies in the fact that even the Turks recognized the ownership of these lands by the monasteries and did not touch them for the whole four centuries of their rule.
With the accession to the throne of Prince Otto, general discontent began to grow even faster. The "Bavaria" more than once rejected the request to give the people a constitution, and the regents of the young king openly did not reckon with Greek customs and traditions. The king himself was a Catholic, his government enforced the Western model of education, the legal system and church administration, with little regard for local conditions and features of the worldview of Orthodox Greeks. In 1833, legislation was adopted that abolished the power of the Patriarch of Constantinople and transferred many ecclesiastical issues to the jurisdiction of civil authorities.
During the reign of Otto, a tragic decision was made to close all monasteries with less than six monastics. The army, led by the Bavarians, which enforced this decision, acted mercilessly. In a short time, more than six hundred Greek monasteries and sketes were forcibly closed. The monks often resisted. There were cases of murder of monks and violence against nuns. Land was taken away from the monasteries and sold to private individuals, the monasteries themselves were plundered. Sacred church vessels and manuscripts were selected and sold to Germany and Austria; small icons were sold at the price of their gold and silver settings (the icons themselves were often desecrated). Priceless ancient copies of the Bible and manuscripts were used as wrapping- they wrapped olives, vegetables and kept gunpowder from dampness.
In 1844, there was a bloodless military coup, and the people received a constitution that limited the power of the king. Otto was finally deposed in 1862 and the Dane George I ascended the throne. His dynasty ruled intermittently until 1974, when, as a result of a referendum, the Greeks abandoned the monarchy with a majority of 69% of the vote.
In the second half of the 19th century, a political dream was formulated - an ideal political model for the existence of the Greek state, called Megali Idea (Great Idea). Its goal is to create a Hellenic state through diplomatic and military means, which would include continental Greece, the Greek islands, northern Epirus and Thrace, as well as the Christian western coast of Turkey, including Constantinople. The post-war arrangement at the end of the second war in the Balkans in 1912 provided for the return of the cities of Thessaloniki and Thrace to Greece. It was a step towards fulfillment ideas, however, northern Epirus, with its large Greek-speaking population, eventually fell to Albania.
In 1922, the Greek invasion of Turkey took place under the pretext of protecting the Greek-speaking minority, pending the completion of negotiations on new borders. The invasion ended in tragedy: the Greek army marched east, making a premature attempt to capture Constantinople, and the West, initially supporting this action, retreated halfway under the pressure of their oil and economic interests. The Greeks were left without political support and, pursued by the troops of Kemal Attatürk, withdrew back to the Greek Orthodox city of Smyrna, where the Turkish troops pursuing them massacred 150,000 men, women and children and burned the city itself. Under the terms of the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, Greece lost any possibility of regaining its former territories. An agreement was reached on a massive population exchange, under which all 400,000 Muslims were deported from Greece to Turkey, and more than 1,300,000 Orthodox Greeks were taken to Greece en masse, which led to an increase in the Greek population by one quarter. It should be noted that many Greeks who arrived from Turkey spoke only Turkish, and their ancestors lived in Asia Minor from the time of Christ and even earlier. Although the Patriarch and the local Orthodox community of 100,000 were allowed to remain in Constantinople and on two islets at the mouth of the Dardanelles, this population exchange ended 2,500 years of Greek presence in Asia Minor.
In 1925, the Greek government, still struggling with the consequences of the 1922 population exchange, "leased" the monastery properties (they had been painstakingly collected since the confiscation of Kapodistrias) for a period of ten years to accommodate refugees. In fact, these possessions were annexed, since the refugees settled there forever, and the government did not even think about their resettlement. nine
The subsequent decades of the national period of Greek history were, unfortunately, no less chaotic, full of upheavals and upheavals. The constant interference of European powers in the politics of Greece and the tragedy civil war after the Italian and German occupation of Greece during World War II, they contributed to artificially induced famine and horrendous inflation that destroyed the country's infrastructure. By the end of the civil war, seven percent of the population had been killed, ten percent had become refugees, and thousands more were in exile or in hiding.
After Greece joined the European Economic Community in 1981, the situation in the country's economy began to improve, however, due to constant skirmishes with neighbors - Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey - and the destructive internal political struggle, Greece is one of the most unstable regions of the Mediterranean. Secularization is growing in the country, governments of various socialist persuasions are often elected, and all this brings confusion to the work of social services. An example of this is the once well-established system of monastic shelters. These orphanages were run by Orthodox nuns. Beginning in 1970, they were deliberately systematically closed, and the children ended up in temporarily educated public institutions where there is a shortage of personnel.
Unfortunately, the end of the twentieth century saw a decline in church attendance. So in 1963, 31% of the Athenians went to church every Sunday, and by 1980 - only 9%; outside the capital, this figure was higher. With rising living standards and imports of both consumer goods and mores from the West, the country seemed to be borrowing from modern Europe and high levels of secularization. However, a joyful change is taking place at the moment, especially noticeable in the number of young people visiting churches and coming to labor in monasteries. Many monasteries, where only a few elderly inhabitants remained, are undergoing a major renovation, especially on Mount Athos. Formerly abandoned communities are being revived, new male and female communities are being built. nunneries. In an area equal in size to a third of California, there are now more than a thousand monastic communities.
Despite the fact that the Greeks as a whole began to go to church less, Greece in the twentieth century gave the world many amazing saints and elders. Perhaps the most revered modern Greek saint is St. Nectarios of Eginsky, who died in 1920. Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit his monastery on Aegina every year. Among the Greek righteous of the twentieth century are such lamps as St. Arseniy of Cappadocia († 1924), Priest Nicholas Planas of Athens († 1932), Rev. Silouan of Athos († 1938) and many other righteous Athos elders, St. Savva the New from the island of Kalymnos († 1948), St. Anfim of Chios († 1960), Fr. Amphilochius Makris from the island of Patmos († 1970) and Fr. Filofei Zervakos from the island of Paros († 1980).
In the face of ongoing political upheavals and military disasters, despite the seduction of Western sophisticated civilization and the weakening of the influence of traditional values, Orthodox Christianity continues to live, as it always did in Greece. Hiding in small hermitages on the islands, in monasteries rising on the rocks above the central plains, in white, sun-drenched suburban churches, in iconic corners of cramped Athenian apartments and in humble chapels hidden in the backyards, monks and nuns, parish priests and lay people with amazing by constancy they carry in their hearts the flame of faith, kindled by St. the apostle Paul two thousand years ago.
Almost the entire population of Greece, namely 98%, belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church. The remaining two percent are Muslims, Protestants, Catholics and Jews. Supporters of the Muslim faith mainly live in Thrace and on the island of Rhodes, Catholics settled on the islands of the Cyclades Archipelago (Syros, Paros, Naxos), Protestant and Jewish communities are organized mainly in Thessaloniki. In addition, in modern Greece, a certain group of the population worships the ancient Olympian gods. ancient greece(Dodecatheon or Twelve Gods, according to the number of the gods of Olympus).
According to the Greek Constitution, every citizen of the country has the right to freedom of conscience and religion, so the attitude towards dissidents in Greece is quite loyal, and representatives of different faiths coexist peacefully.
The Orthodox Church of Greece is inherently autocephalous, that is, it is considered an independent church that does not depend on the rest. The head of the Greek Orthodox Church is traditionally the Archbishop of Athens, whose seat is in Athens.
Monastic Republic of Athos. Photo - EOT
Also in Greece there is an “Autonomous monastic state of the Holy Mountain”, which is located in a small region of the Holy Mount Athos, on one of the “fingers” of the Halkidiki peninsula, and is recognized constitutionally. Unlike the parishes in the central part of the country, the Orthodox churches on Mount Athos and the island of Crete are subordinate to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
As the history of Orthodoxy says, the first preacher of Christianity in the Greek lands in 49 BC was St. Paul. And the great emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantine, founded the Orthodox Church in Greece already in the 4th century. According to legend, in a dream a vision of the cross came to Constantine the Great, after which he decided to convert Greece to Christianity. Initially, Greco-Roman Christianity was not divided into Catholicism and Orthodoxy; contradictions within one diocese appeared much later and, as a result, led Christianity to split into two autonomous religious movements.
Greece's connection with Orthodoxy has deep historical roots. This is no longer just a religious institution, but the history of the country itself: the feelings and emotions of the entire Greek people. Even during the reign of the Ottoman Empire (1433-1821), it was the Orthodox Church that became the main link in preserving the identity and traditions of the Greek people. During the long years of occupation, the Greek Church was repeatedly persecuted, but continued to steadfastly and scrupulously preserve the historical and cultural heritage Hellas, protected the Greek language and traditions. Thanks to this Orthodoxy, it was possible to merge religious self-consciousness and a sense of belonging to one national community.
Separation of the state and the Greek Orthodox Church. The symbiosis of the church and the main state institutions in Greece is a completely unique phenomenon. So, there is simply no strict division between the affairs of the state and the church, as well as complete unity to the so-called "state church". Orthodoxy has a huge influence on modern society and the state apparatus, but this is not stipulated in any way in the current Constitution of the country. This is more like a long-standing friendship than a constant rivalry for power and the minds of the country's citizens.
As former Minister of Justice Prof. M. P. Stathopoulos described the situation: “Greece is a highly religious state. This is a mutually beneficial symbiosis, in which the church is not against state intervention in its affairs, because thanks to this, Orthodoxy receives a high status of a state institution and has greater influence.”
The government carries out its legislative activities taking into account the interests of the Orthodox Church and, of course, its citizens. In addition, it gives a certain religious coloring to all political events in modern Greece, such as the opening ceremony of parliamentary hearings by the Archbishop of Athens or the introduction of the basics of religious studies in educational institutions. By the way, before the start of classes in any school or higher educational institution in Greece, children and teachers should read a prayer.
Until recently, Greece was the only European country, where religious affiliation was indicated in passports and other identity documents.
We heard about the Gods and myths of ancient Greece in the lessons of history and cultural studies, read in educational, historical and fiction, and also saw dozens of cartoons and films about the gods and heroes of Hellas. Greek culture and religion are inseparable from ancient civilization, therefore it is impossible to say for sure whether the formation of one of the greatest civilizations of antiquity influenced the development of its own religion, or vice versa, and the worldviews of the ancient Greeks were the reason that this people managed to create an advanced civilization ancient world. The religion of ancient Greece was one of the most complex religious systems of antiquity, as it included belief in impersonal deities, humanoid deities, demigods, demonic entities, heroes, as well as a number of cults and traditions associated with the worship of gods and heroes.
Features of the religion of the ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks considered the supreme deity, contrary to popular belief, not Zeus at all, but the absolute (cosmos). According to their beliefs, the absolute is a rational, all-encompassing and omnipotent super-entity that created both the earth and people, and gave birth to deities. Despite this belief, the ancient Greeks practically did not have cults dedicated to the absolute, since they believed that it was necessary to glorify individual deities who personify and embody the ideas of the absolute on earth.
The two main characteristics that describe and distinguish the religion of ancient Greece from the beliefs of other peoples of antiquity are considered to be polytheism and anthropomorphism. Polytheism or polytheism is the belief in the existence of many gods, and in the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, polytheism is most clearly visible, since the Hellenes believed that almost every natural element and every social phenomenon has its own god or goddess. The second characteristic of the religion of the ancient Greeks, anthropomorphism or humanization of the gods, was expressed in the fact that the Greeks attributed human qualities and habits to their gods. The gods of the ancient Greeks lived on Mount Olympus, worked together and watched people, and sometimes quarreled and fought among themselves.
Another feature of the beliefs of the ancient Greeks was the belief in the constant interaction of people with the gods. According to the inhabitants of Hellas, not only was everything human not alien to the gods, but they themselves often descended to earth from Olympus and even entered into contact with people. The results of such a connection were heroes - demigods, half-humans, children of a deity and a man, not immortal, but possessing great strength. One of the most famous heroes in Greek religion was Hercules, the son of the god Zeus and the earthly woman Alkemina.
Unlike those who deified their rulers and considered the priests to be the highest caste, the Greeks did not treat the clergy with special reverence. Most rituals and religious rites were carried out separately in each family or community by the heads of families or people respected in society, and the oracles (as the Greeks called their priests), who served at the temples, were responsible for conducting only the most ambitious rituals that required training and special knowledge. However, it cannot be said that the oracles were considered higher than other people in Greek society - despite some isolation of their lives and the ability to communicate with the gods attributed to them, the law and the right of Greek society equally extended to both laity and clergymen.
Deities of the ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks believed that the first dogs were created by the absolute along with the creation of heaven and earth, and these gods were Uranus and Gaia - the god of heaven and the goddess of the earth, respectively. Uranus and Gaia became the parents of Kronos, the first supreme god and tyrant, who married his sister Rhea and became the father of other deities. However, according to Greek mythology, Kronos was very afraid that his children would take power from him on Olympus, so he devoured his own children. Then the goddess Rhea, wanting to protect the newborn Zeus, hid the baby from her father in a cave, and instead of the child she fed Kronos a stone. When Zeus grew up, he defeated his father, freed his sisters and brothers from his womb, and began to rule on Olympus himself. Zeus, his wife Hera, their children, as well as brothers, sisters and nephews of Zeus made up the pantheon of the gods of the ancient Greeks.
All the deities that the inhabitants of ancient Hellas believed in can be divided into three main groups: heavenly (gods living on Olympus), underground (gods living in other underground spheres) and earthly (gods patronizing people and spending most of their time on earth). The most revered in ancient Greece were the following deities:
1. Zeus - the god of thunder and lightning, the ruler of Olympus;
2. Hera - the goddess of family and marriage, the wife of Zeus;
3. Apollo - the god of the Sun and art;
4. Aphrodite - the goddess of beauty and love;
5. Athena - the goddess of wisdom and justice, was also considered the patroness of those who fought for a just cause;
6. Artemis - the goddess of hunting;
7. Hestia - the goddess of the hearth;
8. Poseidon - the god of the sea;
9. Demeter - the goddess of fertility and agriculture;
11. Hades - the god of the underworld, where the souls of people fall after death;
12. Ares - the god of war;
13. Hephaestus - the god of fire and the patron of artisans;
14. Themis - the goddess of justice;
15. Dionysus - the god of winemaking and musical art.
In addition to the gods, the ancient Greeks also believed in the existence of the so-called "demons" - immortal entities that serve a particular deity and possess a certain supernatural power. The inhabitants of Hellas attributed selenium, nymphs, satyrs, oceanides, etc. to such entities.
Cults of the ancient Greeks
In the religion of the ancient Greeks, much attention was paid to various cults related to the veneration of deities and attempts to get closer to Vivid examples of cults associated with the glorification of deities were religious holidays, which were celebrated on a grand scale by all the inhabitants of ancient Hellas. The feast of the "Great Panatheneas" in honor of Athena was especially magnificently celebrated, which included sacrifices in the Acropolis, built specifically for this purpose. The Greeks held similar holidays in honor of other gods, and a number of them included mysteries - rituals performed by oracles, to which lay people were not allowed. Also, the ancient Greeks paid much attention to the cult of ancestors, which consisted in honoring and offering sacrifices to the dead.
Since the ancient Greeks endowed the gods with human qualities and considered them ideal creatures endowed with immortality, supernatural power, wisdom and beauty, it is natural that simple people tried to approach the divine ideal. The cult of the body in ancient Greece was the result of such attempts, because people considered the beauty and health of the physical body a sign of spirituality, harmony and goodwill towards a person of higher powers. A manifestation of the cult of the body in ancient Greece was a number of traditions associated with the upbringing of children, as well as the attitude of the Greeks towards beautiful people. The Greeks were not shy about their bodies, they admired athletic athletes and were not shy about being naked in front of other people in public baths.
The cult of the body in ancient Greece contributed to the formation of the ideal of beauty in the minds of the Greeks. People with regular and symmetrical facial features, a toned athletic figure, golden hair and bright eyes were considered beautiful, and the statue of Aphrodite was the standard of female beauty. Since light skin, big eyes and bright plump lips were in fashion, rich Greek women and Greeks did not spare money on cosmetics for skin whitening, blush and lipstick, which were made from natural ingredients. Thanks to the cult of the body, which obliges to engage in physical education and take care of your body, the ancient Greeks, in comparison with other peoples, were distinguished by better health and longer life expectancy.
The main and most widespread religion in Greece is Christianity, and the Orthodox religion in Greece has almost the entire population, or rather, almost 98% of the country's inhabitants. Orthodox Christianity is recognized as the state religion in the country. At the same time, according to the law, faith in Greece can be freely chosen, and Catholicism is practiced on some islands of the Aegean Sea - this has gone since ancient times, when these areas belonged to the Venetians. A small number of Muslim Turks live in Rhodes and Thrace. All religion in Greece is under the control of the Greek Orthodox Church, and it must be said that the power of the church in the country is quite strongly felt. Religion in Greece is present in many aspects of the life of the local population, for example, according to the laws, all children must attend special religious courses and pray before starting school. The church also has some influence on politics, for example, expresses its disapproval of certain political decisions heads of state. There are many Orthodox churches and monasteries in Greece, and some are places for Christian pilgrimage. Relatively recently, the existence of pagan associations was allowed through the court, and now belief in pagan gods in Greece is considered legal: about a hundred thousand local residents worship those gods that their ancestors, the ancient Greeks, worshiped and sacrificed.
Culture and religion of Ancient Greece - a bit of history
Religion Ancient Greece took very important place in the life of the population. The ancient Greeks created a fascinating story of all their gods, who were like people, and nothing human was alien to them. By the way, the religions of Ancient Greece and Rome are similar, but at the same time, the Romans did not so carefully draw the characters of the gods in their mythology and were not zealous in describing their lives. Despite the existence of the supreme god Zeus in Greek mythology, the religion of Ancient Greece “did not allow” him to create all life, and, according to it, the world came from chaos, and all the gods were already born by Mother Earth and Father Sky. The cults of Ancient Greece provided for sacrifices to the gods, depending on the needs and "field of activity" of a particular god. Each temple had an attendant, a priest, who was believed to be an intermediary between God and people. Christianity originated in Greece in the 2nd century AD. and for a long time was subjected to all sorts of persecutions, and has come a long and hard way until today.
Today, Greece is almost entirely an Orthodox country, but this was not always the case. Once on the Balkan Peninsula, the Greek Gods ruled the ball, and from time to time some of them descended from Olympus to harm, or, on the contrary, help people.
History of Greek beliefs
The ancient Greeks had a large pantheon of Gods, in which 12 of them were the main ones. Each God had his own area of influence, but according to mythology, the areas of interest between the Gods often overlapped.
The Greek Gods ruled over the following areas in people's lives:
- Strength, power and thunder personified Zeus. He kept order, both on earth and in heaven, and was also the main deity;
- Marriage has always been patronized by the wife of Zeus Hera;
- The brother of the chief thunderer Poseidon was in charge of the seas;
- The Greeks took wisdom from the goddess of just war, Athena;
- Beauty was subject to Aphrodite;
- Wars began at the behest of Ares;
- Hunters honored Artemis;
- Art and sunlight were subject to Apollo;
- Trading affairs, as well as theft and delivery of souls to the Underworld, belonged to the jurisdiction of Hermes;
- Fire and various crafts were personified by Hephaestus;
- Demeter brought fertility to people;
- Hestia helped keep the hearth.
Separately, it is worth noting the god of the Underworld Hades. He did not live on the sacred Mount Olympus, but was the brother of Zeus. People brought sacrifices and gifts to the Gods at specially organized pagan temples. They built luxurious temples in honor of the Gods, and established the Olympic Games, dedicating victories in them to their Gods. This was the religion in ancient Greece. What beliefs prevail on Greek soil now?
Christianity as a way of life
The official religion of Greece, enshrined in the country's constitution, is known as Orthodox Christianity. The Greek Orthodox Church has a great influence on the Greek lands.
The residence of the archbishop is in Athens. The residence of the ecumenical patriarch is located in Constantinople.
Orthodox Christianity in Greece is practiced by 98% of the population.
Propaganda of other religions in the Greek state among believers is strictly prohibited. Of course, there are Muslim and Catholic communities in the country, Jehovah's Witnesses and other confessions work, but priority at the state level is always given to Orthodoxy.
Even in the passports of citizens there is a column where religion should be indicated. Such concepts as "Greek" and "Christian" in Greece seem to be inseparable.
The Greeks consider themselves the heirs of Christian Byzantium, and not Ancient Greece, since this period of history, in terms of its time and traditional framework, is much closer to the way of life of modern Greece.
All religious holidays in this state are carefully observed and celebrated very massively.
It is on Greek soil that the relics significant for the entire Christian world are located. They belong to Saint Spyridon. A huge number of churches and monasteries have been built in Greece, the beauty of which is mesmerizing.
The Greeks are also proud that they have the sacred Mount Athos, where monks and novices continuously offer prayers for the well-being of the entire planet.
The Greek Church is not separated from the state, as in other countries, but is in complete symbiosis with the government. This state of affairs does not bother the Greeks at all, on the contrary, they consider it a blessing, and are proud of their Christian history.
