Hero Archbishop Damaskinos

For John, BLUF:  "There is neither Jew nor Greek" (Galatians 3:28).  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Archbishop Damaskinos, the Greek Clergyman Who Stared Down the Nazis

Archbishop Damaskinos was already a hero of 20th-century Greece. And then the Nazis came.

From the daily newsletter of the Foundation for Economic Education, 4 January 2018, by Michael Iakovidis , Lawrence W. Reed.

This is about Greek Archbishop Damakinos:

Dimitris Papandreou was born March 3, 1891, to a very poor family in rural Greece.  He nonetheless managed to attend both theological and law school simultaneously, graduating from both before being drafted to fight in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913.  He was ordained as a minister in 1917, taking the name Damaskinos.

Having assumed the position of Archbishop of Athens upon the German invasion in 1941, Archbishop Dmakinos lead resistance to German deprivations, to include protecting Jews in Greece.  That action earned him a place in Yad Vashem, as noted in the article:

The legacy of Archbishop Damaskinos was not forgotten.  He was honored by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, as “Righteous Among the Nations,” an important designation given to non-Jews who risked their own lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.  He is prominently featured in a permanent exhibition at the International Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Regards  —  Cliff