Timeline of Eastern Orthodoxy in Greece (1924–1974)

This is a timeline of the presence of Orthodoxy in Greece from 1924 to 1974. The history of Greece traditionally encompasses the study of the Greek people, the areas they ruled historically, as well as the territory now composing the modern state of Greece.

Second Hellenic Republic (1924–1935)

1924 Constitution of the Holy Mountain agreed, ratified by the Greek State by the Legislative Decree of 10/16 September 1926;Timeline of the History of the Greek Church. Anagnosis Books, Deliyianni 3, Marousi 15122, Greece. Retrieved 25 April 2013.Ioannis M. Konidaris. "The Mount Athos Avaton." Myriobiblos Library. Retrieved: 8 February 2013. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia formally founded;History of the Church in Australia . Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. Retrieved: 24 July 2013. death of Arsenios of Cappadocia.Great Synaxaristes : Ὁ Ὅσιος Ἀρσένιος ὁ Καππαδόκης. 10 Νοεμβρίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ. 1925 School of Theology established at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, due to the initiative taken by the government of Alexandros Papanastasiou."School of Theology." Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Retrieved: 21 May 2015. 1925–1945 Emigration of less than 30,000 Greeks to the United States, many of whom were "picture brides" for single Greek men.Greeks in USA: The Origins. Hellenic Republic: Embassy of Greece – Washington, DC. Retrieved: 21 May 2013. 1926 Proposal for Mount Athos to be turned into a condominium by Dictator Theodoros Pangalos, as part of the treaty signed on 17 August between Greece and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; the existing constitution governing the affairs of Mount Athos is passed.Treasures from Mount Athos. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF IMPORTANT EVENTS . Hellenic Resources Network (HR-Net). Retrieved: 23 May 2013. 1927–1954 Archim. Seraphim Papakostas (1872–1954) succeeds Archim. Eusebius Matthopoulos as head of the Zoe Brotherhood movement in Greece.Kallistos Ware, (Bishop of Diokleia). The Inner Kingdom. Volume 1 of Collected works. St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2000. p. 44. 1928 The Ecumenical Patriarchate issued a tome by which it ceded to the Church of Greece, on a temporary basis, 35 of its metropolitan dioceses in northern Greece to be administered by it.Victor Roudometof. Greek Orthodoxy, Territoriality, and Globality: Religious Responses and Institutional Disputes. Report. Sociology of Religion. Vol. 69 No. 1. 22 March 2008. Pg. 67(25). ."Codified in the 1928 Patriarchal and Synodical Act, the "New Lands" were entrusted to the temporary stewardship of the Church of Greece, provided that the Church respected the terms of the Act. The Act subsequently has been incorporated into several pieces of Greek legislation (Laws 3615/1928, 5438/1932, 599/1977, and Article 3, paragraph 1 of the current Greek Constitution), thereby recognizing the ecclesiastical agreement between the two sides." 1930 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk officially renamed Constantinople to Istanbul,Harry Mount. Istanbul, Turkey: in search of the city's Roman past. The Telegraph (UK). 9:40AM BST 17 September 2012.Turkey timeline: A chronology of key events . BBC News. 13:48 GMT, Thursday, 22 March 2012.Robinson, Richard D.. The First Turkish Republic: A Case Study in National Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965. which comes from the Greek expression "eis-tin-polin" ("to the City"), based on the common Greek usage of referring to Constantinople simply as The City; a Pan-Orthodox Consultation on Mount Athos concluded that the only possible relations on the part of the Orthodox toward the Roman Catholics was "Relations of defense on the part of the Orthodox toward Roman Catholic Proselytism;"Rev. Nicon D. Patrinacos. A Dictionary of Greek Orthodoxy – Λεξικον Ελλινικης Ορθοδοξιας. Light and Life Publishing, 1984. p.323. Traditionalist Greeks (Old Calendarist communities) began publishing the monthly journal Orthodoxos Keryx (Orthodox Herald) from 1930.Dimitri Kitsikis (Professor). The Old Calendarists and the Rise of Religious Conservatism in Greece. Translated from the French by Novice Patrick and Bishop Chrysostomos of Etna. Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 1995. p. 21.

1930–1931 Rulings of the Court of Appeal (1930) and the Supreme Court (1931) imposed a ban on Uniates in Greece from wearing the outer garments of Orthodox clergy, in order to avoid the confusion with Orthodox clergy they were seeking, however the Uniates never consistently respected this decision. ΑΝΤΙΑΙΡΕΤΙΚΟΝ ΕΓΚΟΛΠΙΟΝ. . ΑΠΟΣΠΑΣΜΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ: "ΟΥΝΙΑ: ΠΡΟΣΩΠΟ ΚΑΙ ΠΡΟΣΩΠΕΙΟ", πρωτοπρ. ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΥ ΜΕΤΑΛΛΗΝΟΥ. Retrieved: 7 August 2015.

1931 Benaki Museum opens in Athens, housing Byzantine, Post-Byzantine, and Neo-Hellenic ecclesiastical and national art collections. 1932 Death of Saint Nicholas Planas.Great Synaxaristes : Ὁ Ἅγιος Νικόλαος ὁ Πλανᾶς. 2 Μαρτίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.Fr. Alexey Young. The Simple Shepherd – Papa Nicholas Planas . Orthodox America (St. James the Apostle Orthodox Church). Issue 56, Vol VI, No. 6, January 1986. Retrieved: 17 May 2013.Ourania Papadopoulos. Papa-Nicholas Planas: The Simple Shepherd of the Simple Sheep . Transl. from the Greek by Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Boston, Massachusetts, 2001. 149 pages. 1933 Church of Greece bans Freemasonry, declaring that when one becomes a Mason (a member of Freemasonry) it is an act of apostasy from the Church and therefore, until that person repents, they can not attend the Holy Eucharist;Freemasonry: Official Statement of the Church of Greece (1933) . Orthodox Christian Information Center. Retrieved: 24 November 2012.Gregory Zorzos – Γρηγόρης Ζώρζος. Secret Societies at revolution era 1821 in Greece – Μυστικές Εταιρείες 1821 . Gregory Zorzos, 2009. p.77. opening of the new Patriarchal Palace in Cairo by Patriarch Meletios, built at the expense of Theodore Kotsikas.CHRONOLOGY (OF CHRISTIANITY IN AFRICA). Orthodox Research Institute. Retrieved: 29 July 2014. 1934 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk transformed Hagia Sophia into a museum.Marangos, Frank. Resolving the religious freedom issue of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table. 22 June 2007. . 1935 Death of eminent prelate Metropolitan Germanos (Karavangelis) in Vienna, who had played a central role and was an active participant both in the Greek Struggle for Macedonia and in Pontus, and was a primary candidate for election to the Ecumenical Throne of Constantinople in 1921, and to be Archbishop of Athens in 1923, only to censured in the end by both church and state; Τάσος Αθ. Γριτσόπουλος . "Γερμανός. Ὁ Καραβαγγέλης." Θρησκευτική και Ηθική Εγκυκλοπαίδεια (ΘΗΕ). Τόμος 4 (Βυζάντιον-Διοκλής). Αθηναι – Αθαν. Μαρτινος, 1964. σελ. 400–402. Πάνος Ν. Αβραμόπουλος. Μητροπολίτης Γερμανός Καραβαγγέλης – Ο ρασοφόρος Ακρίτας . Romfea.gr. Σάββατο, 11 Μαΐου 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2014. Old Calendar schism, when three bishops declared their separation from the official Church of Greece stating that the calendar change was a schismatic act; German Biblical scholar Alfred Rahlfs published his two-volume Septuaginta, a semi-critical edition of the Greek Septuagint, being the only complete critical text of the Septuagint in existence to that date.Robert J. V. Hiebert. Inauguration of the John William Wevers Institute and Septuagint Chair Campaign. Trinity Western University. 5 December 2011. Retrieved: 25 May 2018. p. 3.

Kingdom of Greece restored (1935–1967)

1936 Apostolic Ministry of the Church of Greece founded ( 'Apostoliki Diakonia' );Publishersglobal.com. Publisher Profile: Apostoliki Diakonia of the Orthodox Christian Church of Greece. Retrieved: 27 April 2013. General Ioannis Metaxas, Prime Minister of Greece during the 4th of August Regime (1936–41), propagated a Third Hellenic Civilization (Ancient Greece and Byzantium being the first two);Alexander Ganse. Greece 1935 – 1940 . World History at KMLA (Korean Minjok Leadership Academy). First posted in 2000, last revised on 27 February 2007. Retrieved: 1 May 2013. by 1936, Zoe Brotherhood had opened 300 catechetical schools with 35,000 pupils, and received the first prize at the International Protestant Conference on Sunday Schools in Oslo.Christos Yannaras. Orthodoxy and the West: Hellenic Self-Identity in the Modern Age. Transl. Peter Chamberas and Norman Russell. Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2006. p. 230.

1937 The Ecumenical Patriarchate chose a number of highly educated religious personalities for key positions in the recently declared Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, after an agreement with the Albanian authorities, including Panteleimon (Kotokos) as Metr. of Gjirokastër, and Eulogios (Kourilas), as metropolitan of Korytsa;Fahlbusch, Erwin Bromiley, and Geoffrey William. The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999. p.35. . Mass NKVD operation against Greeks in the USSR begins, based on Joseph Stalin's Directive 50125 Dec. 1937, resulting in the loss of 38,000 Soviet citizens of Hellenic descent at the Gulags of Siberia.SAE World Council of Hellenes Abroad. Memorial for the Greek victims of Gulag in Siberia . SAE Former USSR Countries. Moscow, 28 January 2010. Retrieved: 25 August 2013. 1938 Death of Silouan of Mt Athos;Great Synaxaristes : Ὁ Ἅγιος Σιλουανὸς ὁ Ἁγιορείτης . 24 Σεπτεμβρίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.Venerable Silouan of Mt. Athos. Orthodox Church in America. Chrysanthos (Philippidis) becomes the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece (1938–1941); Σαπκίδη, Όλγα. Χρύσανθος Τραπεζούντος . Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor. 9/4/2002. Retrieved: 21 August 2013. American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese is founded, when a group of 37 Ruthenian Eastern Catholic parishes, under the leadership of Fr. Orestes Chornock were received into the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.Archpriest John W. Morris. The Historic Church: An Orthodox View of Christian History. AuthorHouse, 2011. p. 210.

1939–49 World War II and subsequent Greek Civil War (1944–49), famine and widespread bloodshed.Christopher Montague Woodhouse, Richard Clogg. The struggle for Greece, 1941–1949. Ivan R. Dee, 2002. 352 pages. 1939 The emigration of the Antiochian Greeks reaches its peak. 1941 In occupied Athens, Abp. Chrysanthos refused to swear in the first Quisling government of Georgios Tsolakoglou appointed by the Germans.George Th. Mavrogordatos (University of Athens). CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS IN THE GREEK ORTHODOX CASE. Paper presented to the Workshop: "Church and State in Europe" ECPR Joint Sessions, Copenhagen, 14–19 April 2000. p. 8. 1943 Massacre of Kalavryta by German occupation forces, including the monks and monastery of Agia Lavra;Why the Clock Stopped in Kalavryta; Lyn Drummond Talks to Some of Those Who, As Greek Village Children, Survived German Reprisals 55 Years Ago. Canberra Times (Australia). 12 December 1998. Part A; Page 5. the Nazi attempt to exterminate the Jews of Athens fails, thanks to the combined efforts of Abp. Damaskinos (Papandreou) of Athens, Greek resistance groups and the Greek people.Ron Grossman. Greece's quiet heroes defied Nazis to keep others alive: Christians risked their lives to help Jews in the country escape the Holocaust. Now, an exhibit at a Chicago museum celebrates their efforts. Chicago Tribune. 9 February 2007. Retrieved: 23 July 2013. 1944 Abp. Damaskinos (Papandreou) of Athens serves as regent in an attempt to stabilise Greece (31 Dec 1944 – 28 Sep 1946)."Damaskinos." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2009 Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009.