King Constantine

Photo of King Constantine

Eleftherios Venizelos

Photo of Venizelos

Royalists vs. Venizelists

What worsened the feud was the effect the split between the Royalists and the Venizelists had on the Church of Greece and the resulting chain of events that followed in America.

After the departure of King Constantine, a new Archbishop of Greece, Meletios Metaxakis, was appointed by a Holy Synod allied with the new government. Meletios wasted no time and made it his highest priority to take the necessary steps to establish an archdiocese in America. He began the process in 1918 as WW1 came to an end. Remarkably, Venizelos lost the election of 1920 in a stunning upset. King Constantine returned with the restoration of the monarchy and re-elevation of Archbishop Theocritos. Although recalled, Meletios managed to complete his plans in establishing the American Archdiocese by September of 1921, naming Alexandros as North and South America's first Greek Orthodox archbishop.

The Royalists vs. Venizelists factions then took their battles into the church arena adding a most difficult dimension to Greek immigrant life and creating an embarrassment in its church affairs.


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Greek Immigration to America, a slide presentation, delivered originally as a lecture to the Lancaster County Historical Society, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, December 3, 2004.

Copyright © Nikitas J. Zervanos, M.D., 2005. All Rights Reserved.
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Published in PAHH, 2005.

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