Blog

THE PAPAFLESSAS AND THE MANIAC

"I once swore to shed my blood for the need of the Fatherland and now the time has come", replied Gregory the Just to his brother Nikitas Flessas, when he suggested that he retreat from Maniaki to the Messinian mountains and confront the Egyptian Ibrahim Pasha from a better defensive position. But who was the fiery archimandrite who decided to sacrifice himself at a critical moment for the Struggle for Independence and how was the infamous battle at Maniaki fought on the 20^η May 1825?

Born in 1788 in Polyani, Messinia, on the 28th^ο The son of Dimitris Flessas or Dikaios, he was destined to become one of the leading figures of the Greek Revolution. At a young age he took on the monastic robes and received the nickname Grigorios from Georgios. In history, however, he remained known as Papaflessas. His reactionary behavior resulted in his transfer from the Monastery of Velanidia to the Monastery of Rekitsa. There, however, his disputes with the aga of the region, Hussein, over some land disputes, resulted in his flight from the Morea in 1817, with the promise on his part that he would "I will return to the Morea as a Despot or a Pasha."

He passed through Zakynthos where he met the then major of the British Army, Theodore Kolokotronis, and from there his path ended at the Patriarchate, in Constantinople. With the help of God and his intelligence, he was ordained a deacon and very quickly became an archimandrite. In 1814, the Friendly Society was founded in Odessa, Russia, and in 1818, Anagnostaras initiated Papaflessas into the secret. Taking the title of “Appropriate”, he began as the Society’s envoy to the Transdanubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia to initiate new members and acquire resources and allies for the future Revolution. He showed great zeal and intense action and thus his participation in December 1820 at the conference in Ismailio under the Chief Prince Alexander Ypsilantis for the final decisions was expected. There he tried to overcome the resistance and hesitations of the Friends and by displaying a forged document with the signatures of the Moraite kotzambazids, he raised a storm of reactions. However, Ypsilantis decided to send him as the Society's Apostle to the Peloponnese to prepare the Struggle. In the purist from Romiosini Morea he managed to ignite the flame of Freedom. And if at the gathering of Vostitsa in January 1821 the prelates and the Palaion Patron Germanos were also hesitant and called him a traitor and a fraud, he answered them that "the Revolution will take place on the day appointed by God even if I remain a monk. I am initiating the Struggle with 1.000 Maniots, according to the Chief, and whoever the Turks find disarmed, let them kill him."

On March 23, 1821, he rode into Kalamata together with Petrobeis Mavromichalis, the Old Man of Morea and Nikitaras. The Revolution was a fact. The dreams of the enslaved man were becoming a reality. Papaflessas participated in the siege of Tripolitsa and Acrocorinth, in the triumph over Dramalis Pasha at Dervenakia. However, he also participated in political machinations. With the beginning of the Struggle, political confrontations also began, since the fighters and the Friends were sidelined while the proestos and the Phanariotes acquired executive power. "Discord that holds a scepter is cunning," wrote our national poet Dionysios Solomos, capturing in the public sphere the events that took place during the internal civil conflicts of 1824. In the new government that emerged, Papaflessas held the position of Minister of the Interior and turned his back on his old comrades. In a period when everyone looked out for their own personal interests, the archimandrite was no exception.

But in 1825 he remembered his old self, enchanted with the ideals of freedom and patriotism. Ibrahim landed in the Peloponnese and won one battle after another. Papaflessas, knowing that only Kolokotronis could stop him, asked for his release, but his request was not accepted. So he took action. He became the head of an expedition against Ibrahim. At first, the enthusiasm and response were great. Mavromichalis and Plapoutas ordered him help and a force that reached 5.000 rifles. He decided to confront Agarinos at the location of Maniaki, a relatively low hill, waiting for the help of the captains and his brother Nikitas. But he waited in vain as everyone wrote to him that they could not ultimately help him and that he too should change his battle position. With tears in his eyes he writes to his brother "This is my first and last letter to you, so please read it sometimes, remember me and cry." He decides, despite the objections of Kefalas and Pieros Voides, to give battle. About 300 young men remained with him. However, he had Ibrahim's regular army, organized by European officers. And yet, this army with battalions of infantry, cavalry and cannons took almost a whole day to subdue Papaflessas, who was fighting from the northern drum of the three hills that the few Greeks had captured. At his side was a young French philhellene. In order to hasten the battle and win, Ibrahim ordered those who returned from the continuous yurousia to be slaughtered. Finally, and while batteries were heard from the approaching body of Plaputas, the Egyptians reached the Greek drum. The scimitars were drawn from their scabbards and hand-to-hand fighting took place. Few Greeks managed to escape with their swords in their hands and save themselves. Most, however, fell dead along with their leader. And Ibrahim ordered that the dead archimandrite be found and that his body and head be erected on a stake. He then approached the dead man, and after looking at him for a while, he kissed him on the cheek, saying "He stood up as a capable and brave man."

"His place is among the protagonists of the Struggle," wrote D. Kokkinos in his work The Greek Revolution. "Anyone else, faced with the insurmountable obstacles they encountered, would have retreated," pointed out D. Photiadis in the Revolution of 21. The fiery archimandrite passed into the pantheon of Heroes. Heroes who with their struggles and blood gave us the long-awaited good of freedom. So that today we can be proud of our origin as Greeks, to dream, to set goals. And not to try to question values ​​and ideals, to reproduce ideological errors, to philosophize about intentions and alleged social motivations for the great uprising. The Revolution of 1821 was a national war, a holy war for the recovery of freedom and national independence from the horrible slavery of the Ottomans. Proven and historically proven.

Miltiadis V. Parlantzas

       Assistant Professor (EM), MSc