Germanos III of Old Patras

Germanos III of Old Patras (1771–1826)

Monastery Agia Lavra, Germanos blessing the flag. Painting by Theodoros Vryzakis, 1865

Germanos III of Old Patras (Greek: Παλαιών Πατρών Γερμανός Γʹ; 1771–1826), born Georgios Gotzias, was an Orthodox Metropolitan of Patras.

Germanos was born in Dimitsana, northwestern Arcadia, Peloponnese. Before his consecration as Metropolitan of Patras by Patriarch Gregory V, he had served as a priest and Protosyngellus in Smyrna.

Greek Revolution

According to tradition, on March 25, 1821, Bishop Germanos blessed a Greek flag at the Monastery of Agia Lavra and proclaimed the national uprising against the Ottoman Empire.^[1][2][3] Another revolt of Greek War of Independence had also been declared on February 21 by Alexandros Ypsilantis in Iaşi.

References

1. "Greek Independence Day.". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2009-09-09. The Greek revolt was precipitated on March 25, 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the flag of revolution over the Monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese. The cry “Freedom or Death” became the motto of the revolution. The Greeks experienced early successes on the battlefield, including the capture of Athens in June 1822, but infighting ensued.
2. Frazee, Charles A. (1969). The Orthodox Church and independent Greece, 1821-1852. CUP Archive. pp. 18–20. ISBN 0-521-07247-6. On 25 March, Germanos gave the revolution its great symbol when he raised a banner with the cross on it at the monastery of Ayia Lavra.
3. McManners, John (2001). The Oxford illustrated history of Christianity. Oxford University Press. pp. 521–524. ISBN 0-19-285439-9. The Greek uprising and the church. Bishop Germanos of old Patras blesses the Greek banner at the outset of the national revolt against the Turks on 25 March 1821. The solemnity of the scene was enhanced two decades later in this painting by T. Vryzakis….The fact that one of the Greek bishops, Germanos of Old Patras, had enthusiastically blessed the Greek uprising at the onset (25 March 1821) and had thereby helped to unleash a holy war, was not to gain the church a satisfactory, let alone a dominant, role in the new order of things.