Gregory V (Patriarch)

Patriarch Gregory V.

Gregory V ( Greek Γρηγόριος Ε * 1745 in Dimitsana , Arcadia ; † 22. April 1821 in Constantinople Opel ; real name Georgios Angelopoulos , Γεώργιος Αγγελόπουλος ) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Opel and ethnarch of rum Millet (rum milleti) in Ottoman Reich from 1797 to 1798, 1806 to 1808 and 1818 to 1821. He died a violent death.

Angelopoulos received a scientific education in Athos and then retired as a hermit for a few years . In 1784 he was promoted to Archbishop of Smyrna . On May 1, 1797, he was elected Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. After Napoléon Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign , it was assumed in the Ottoman Empire that the Greeks were secretly in alliance with the French. This made some Turks claim the head of Gregory. With the approval of Sultan Selim III. The head of the church avoided Mount Athos until the waves had calmed down and he could exercise his official duties again.

During his tenure, Gregory was responsible for the restoration of the patriarchal cathedral of St. George , which was badly damaged by a fire in 1738. He also translated the letters of the Apostle Paul into modern Greek and commented on them.

After the start of the Greek struggle for independence , Gregory V, as the ethnarch of the Greek religious community in the Ottoman Empire , was reprimanded by Sultan Mahmud II for his inability to suppress the Greek uprising. The patriarch apparently had secret connections with rebels, but publicly in 1821 he exhorted the Greeks to obey the state. On March 21, 1821, he banished rebels from church . His immediate surroundings tried in vain to convince the patriarch to leave Constantinople in view of his potential danger in a Greek revolution, which finally broke out on March 25, 1821.

The Ottomans resented the flight of the family of Prince Murusis, entrusted to Gregory V, from Wallachia , although he himself had not contributed to the escape. On Easter Sunday 1821, after celebrating the Easter liturgy , the patriarch was arrested by Janissaries on the orders of the Sultan while leaving the cathedral at around 10 a.m. They delivered Gregor V to prison where he was subjected to torture.

Gregory Shrine in Athens Cathedral

On the afternoon of April 22nd (April 10th according to the Julian calendar) the head of the church was finally hung up at around 3 p.m. at the main entrance to the patriarchal building. The body of the dead man was dragged through the streets two days later and thrown into the Bosphorus . Greek sailors recovered the body and brought it to Odessa , where it was buried. At the request of the Greek government, the bones were transferred to Athens in 1871 , where they rest in the Metropolitan Cathedral.

In memory of the dead, the main entrance gates of the patriarchal building in Constantinople were closed in 1821 and have been welded shut ever since. The Eastern Church venerated Gregory V, who was canonized on April 8, 1921, as a martyr .

In 1872 a monument to Gregory V was erected in front of the Athens University.

Web links

Commons : Patriarch Gregory V  - collection of images

• Gregor . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 7, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 656.
• The priest as the national symbol of the Greeks, excerpt from Demosthenes Savramis, Theologia , Athens 1987