Saint Chrysostomos of Florina on Meletios Metaxakis

On the Holy Mountain, the heroic shepherd remained for five years studying and praying for the Church and the afflicted Nation. Having been informed that the innovator Meletios Metaxakis was preparing to seize the Ecumenical Throne, he went down to Athens and presented to the then Prime Minister [Dimitrios] Gounaris the danger threatening the Patriarchate from the ascent of Meletios to it. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister, as always happens, remained completely indifferent to Chrysostomos' anguish. But let us allow the sorrowful consequences that followed to be described to us by himself in his well-known vivid manner.

“In the meantime, Meletios Metaxakis—who had been in America propagandizing on behalf of Venizelism along with the Archbishop of Athens, who was then still an archimandrite—was elected Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople. And thus began a new stage of persecution for me, since I had resolved always to fulfill my duty in accordance with the dictates of my hierarchical conscience, as a consequence of the uncanonical election of Meletios to the throne of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. As soon as Meletios’ election was announced, all the Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, those in the New Lands of Greece—about sixty in number—gathered in Thessaloniki under the presidency of the first in rank, then Metropolitan of Cyzicus and later Ecumenical Patriarch Constantine, and declared ‘the election of Meletios null and uncanonical.’ Unfortunately, however, shortly thereafter, under pressure from the revolutionary government of [General Nikolaos] Plastiras, all the participants of the aforementioned Synod of Thessaloniki hastened one after another to recognize Meletios, except for two bishops: Sophronios of Eleutheroupolis and our close friend Chrysostomos.

“Having then been summoned by the holy Chrysostomos of Kavala at the behest of the Minister, and urged by him—up to the point of threat—to also recognize Meletios, I categorically refused to comply with the suggestion, paying no heed whatsoever to his threats. Then, in order to avoid a second exile on the Holy Mountain, I departed in time for Alexandria to visit my relatives there and to find relief from my afflictions.

“While I was in Alexandria, I received a summons from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, calling me to appear before the Holy Synod and give an account, because I had not recognized the election of Meletios as Ecumenical Patriarch. But being under such circumstances that I could not appear in person before the Synod, I sent a written defense, in which I justified—on the basis of the divine and sacred Canons—my non-recognition of Meletios as a canonical patriarch. And while the latter was preparing to try me in absentia and depose me, he was expelled from the throne by the Turks, as one who had scandalously involved himself, contrary to his spiritual mission, in anti-Turkish politics. And thus, I was then saved by the providence of the Lord from an unjust condemnation, in order to suffer now one that is still more unjust. Such, in general terms, was my past until my restoration to the province of Florina (1924), which I shepherded in a god-loving and God-pleasing manner by the power of God and the grace of the All-Holy Spirit for six years, and from which I voluntarily resigned for reasons of health, in order to devote my remaining strength again for the sake of the Church, serving and preaching the Gospel of Christ without recompense in Athens and elsewhere. After such a past of active service, can one who judges rationally and justly doubt that I, after my departure from active duty and in the twilight of life, would undertake such a great and bold step, if it had not been imposed upon me by my hierarchical conscience? And what shall I say regarding the disgraceful slander of His Beatitude, that I was promoted to this position together with my fellow strugglers in order to serve personal grudges against him and to pursue egotistical ambitions and aims—when my entire past guarantees the purity and nobility of the motives behind my whole episcopal policy?”

 

Source: Ο Σύγχρονος ομολογητής της Ορθοδοξίας [The Contemporary Confessor of Orthodoxy], by Stavros Karamitsos, pp. 24–26.

Online: https://entoytwnika1.blogspot.com/2025/05/blog-post_74.html