Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part I

No. 198.
Mr. Francis to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
Athens, June 29, 1872. (Received July 22.)

No. 62.]

Sir: I inclose herewith a printed slip, with translation of the matter? the same being a communication by the holy synod of Greece to the minister of ecclesiastical affairs, requesting that legal proceedings, be commenced against three missionaries here for “heterodox teaching” and preaching. I also inclose a translation of the first three articles of the constitution of Greece bearing upon the subject of religious liberty and personal rights. It is under the first section, forbidding proselytism, that it is proposed to prosecute the missionaries against whom coin-plaint is made by the synod.

It will be seen that this complaint is founded, not upon any direct evidence possessed by the synod, but simply upon newspaper articles. This is admitted in the complaint.

Mr. Kalopathakis, the missionary first named, is a Greek citizen. He was mostly educated in the United States, married an American lady, recently deceased, and has for several years been employed here in mission work by the American and Foreign Christian Missionary Union. He publishes two religious Greek newspapers, one for adults and the other for children, and preaches on Sundays in the chapel recently erected by him opposite the columns of Jupiter. He is a man of very pronounced opinions and strong will-power; but he declares that, though fearlessly preaching “evangelical truth” as he understands it, he never assailed the Greek Church at all. He plants himself upon his constitutional rights as a Greek citizen, and declares that he can and will successfully defend himself in case he is prosecuted.

Mr. Sakillarios, also a subject of synodic complaint and denunciation, lived in the United States many years, was there educated, and married to a Massachusetts lady. Mr. S., who is a native of Macedonia, of Greek parentage, is an American citizen by adoption, and now holds his naturalization papers. He has been only a few years here in the missionary service, and is employed by a Baptist missionary society in the United States. His wife superintends a free children’s school of about 125 pupils, which is sustained by the society, and he preaches to a congregation in his own house on Sundays. Mr. S. is a mild-mannered man, indulges in no quarrels, and states that he never alluded to the Greek Church in deprecatory terms. On the other hand, his object has been to enlighten the minds of his hearers by reminding them of their personal duties, and impressing upon their minds the duty of obeying the commands of the Bible, which is precisely the same as that recognized in the Greek Church. He has never even organized a church here. Mr. Sakillarios does not believe the government will undertake to carry into effect the recommendation of the holy synod concerning the missionaries named in their complaint.

Mr. Constantine is a native of Greece, but went to America in early life, is a graduate of Amherst College, was married in Boston twelve or fifteen years ago, and returned to Athens as a missionary a few years since. He has held religious services in his own house, and has always in conversation with me on the subject deprecated everything that could be construed as an aggressive policy toward the Greek Church. Mr. Constantine is now in the United States on business connected with his missionary labors here, having left Athens for America more than three months ago. For several years he held the office of United States vice-consul at the Piraeus, and discharged the consulate duties, acceptably I believe, a considerable portion of the time. He is a citizen of the United States.

The opinion is expressed by some of the leading Athens journals and by prominent Greeks who are devoted members of the Greek Church that this movement of the synod against the missionaries is unfortunate and unjustifiable; that it is a blow aimed at the liberty and toleration guaranteed by the constitution in the articles herewith transmitted, and that the government will incur severe public censure if it takes proceedings in the matter as recommended by the synod.

Of course I shall take no action in this case, nor meddle with it at all, unless a contingency shall happen, which I hope may not occur, wherein the rights-of American citizens are assailed, and it becomes necessary to take proper steps under your instructions to uphold those rights.

I am, &c,

JOHN M. FRANCIS.

[Inclostire No. 1.—Translation.]

The holy synod of Greece to the minister of ecclesiastical affairs.

Kingdom of Greece,
Athens, May 19–31, 1872.

synodic complaint.

Concerning the heterodox teaching, which has long been practiced here in Athens, by the missionaries M. Kalopothakis, Sakillarios, and Constantine:

It is now full five years since the synod, by its paper of April 6, 1867, No. 7107, accused the said M. Kalopothakis, yet, unfortunately, against all expectation, nothing was done about it.

Now, having been informed that in the house he has recently built, in the Placa ward, he has set up a church for the purpose of promulgating his heterodox doctrines, and every Sunday he does, in the full light of day, spread these doctrines for the purpose of proselyting; also that the other two, Sakillarios and Constantine, have established schools or meetings, in which they teach Greek children of both sexes, being likewise notified of the same by the inclosed papers, viz, No. 1780 of the newspaper called the Age, published at Athens, and secondly by an extra sheet also recently published, the holy synod is constrained, by its sacred and binding duties, to arraign once more the said missionaries, and to implore the bureau to hasten and render the authority of Greece respected, (at a time, especially, when the church suffers such trials in the east by various agencies, open and secret,) and to execute with severity the laws against those who attack the integrity and the peace of the orthodox apostolic church, that henceforth these infernal scandals and unlawful proceedings, which shake our holy religion to its very foundations, may be stopped. Otherwise there is great danger lest an irreparable damage, both religious and social, be done by these missionaries, who, without shame and without molestation, break the established laws, and openly and fearlessly injure the most holy things.

The synod, bringing these things to the notice of the ministers, within, as before said, the bounds of its sacred duties and of the law, is persuaded that the government will discharge immediately, and with severity, its own duties, and inform the synod in due time of its proceedings.

• THEOPHILUS, Archbishop of Athens.
• ANTONY, Bishop of Corfu.
• PROCOPIOS, Bishop of Oetilon.
• PARTHENIOS, Bishop of Gytheion.
• IGNATIOS, Bishop of Trephylias and Olympia.

[Inclosure No. 2.—Translation.]

Extracts from the constitution of Greece..

Political constitution of Greece, subscribed to by our King, George I, November 16, 1864.

on religion.

Article 1. The established religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ; but every other known religion is tolerated, and the acts of its worship are celebrated without hinderance under the proctection of the laws, proselytism being forbidden, and all other interference against the established religion.

Article 2. The Orthodox Church of Greece, recognizing as its head our Lord Jesus Christ, is inseparably united in doctrine with the great church of Christ in Constantinople, and every other of like doctrine, keeping immovably as do they both the sacred apostolic and synodic canons and the sacred traditions; but it is self-governed, [self-headed,] exercising its rights of supremacy independently of every other church, and it is administered by a sacred synod of chief priests. The ministers of all the recognized religions are subject to the same supervision by the state as the ministers of the established religion.

on the public rights of greeks.

Article 5. Greeks are equal before the law, and contribute impartially to the public burdens in proportion to their property; but only Greek citizens are admissible to all the public offices. Citizens are such persons as have acquired or shall acquire the qualifications of a citizen according to the laws of the land. Among Greek citizens titles of nobility are neither given nor recognized.