By Nick Stamatakis
A rare historical document came to our attention recently, and it is certainly worth reading and commenting on. It is a 1952 letter by Archbishop Iakovos, then priest in the Cathedral of Boston (Annunciation of the Virgin Mary), to his close friend, Metropolitan Photios of Paphos, Cyprus. The two had spent a few years together at the Halki Theological School, where they became close friends. You can admire them in their photos of that time – the early 1950s – (below) their powerful, youthful presence…
This particular letter by AB Iakovos is significant for several reasons. Just the language and immaculate style in writing Greek alone does not leave the slightest doubt about the high education of the man and the nature of his character: outspoken, daring, straightforward, excruciatingly candid. “…I would have left the ranks of the CLERGY a long time ago, which I think is a more corrupt and perverted and small-minded class than any other social class…”, he proclaims in one sentence… “Metropolitan of Derkon doesn’t want me as an American there. He wants me to become a Turk. But if I go as a Turk, I can never come back here, and this is no time for experiments…” he underlines in another… At that time, 1952, he had already spent 12 years in America, and he was convinced that his future was permanently associated with this great country of ours…
AB Iakovos was passionate about freedom and could not imagine staying in Turkey and bending before the “Pashas.” He immediately grabbed the offer by the later Patriarch Athenagoras to come to America. And when later, in 1951, very close to the time this letter was written, Pat. Athenagoras offered him the position of the Director of the Halki Theological School he refused. This refusal cost him a cut of communications with Athenagoras for three full years until, in 1954, the Patriarch appointed him as his representative at the World Council of Churches in Switzerland.
This letter was later, in the 1990s, circulated with other letters by those (directed by Karloutsos and Bartholomew) who wanted to undermine him. Karloutsos, who without Iakovos would still be a lowly priest somewhere in the midwest, will remain an eternal example of ungratefulness for backstabbing the best Archbishop our Church ever had, the man with a vision of a great leader that had first brought him next to Martin Luther King and later on the road to unite all Orthodox in America – just after the 1994 Ligonier meeting. Bartholomew is still seething with jealousy when he tries to raise his minuscule stature (with the countless failures in everything he touches) next to the tall figure of the true world leader AB Iakovos.
AB Iakovos will be forever remembered lovingly by all of us and the wider American public for his accomplishments. While both Karloutsos and Bartholomew are about to go down in flames, enmeshed as they are in countless scandals and financial and (geo)political disasters…
This background should be enough to render reading this letter a worthy experience and give us a few lessons for the critical times ahead…
Helleniscope is sending today an open invitation to all interested in organizing an annual event commemorating AB Iakovos, an event to be held for now AWAY from GOARCH, and out of the hands of those who still today disgrace his memory.
BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL GREEK TEXT AND IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION. Also, you can read the original here in pdf ARCHBISHOP IAKOVOS LETTER 1952 and see it below as a photo.
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Photos Above: Metropolitan Fotios of Paphos and Iakovos in the early 1950s.
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Αγαπητέ μου Φώτιε,
Σαν σήμερα πριν από 5 χρόνια προσγειωνόμουνα στην Πόλι. Σήμερα όμως είμαι κλεισμένος στο γραφείο, ύστερα από μια βροχερή μέρα που είναι. Ας είναι και Κυριακή.
Πόση χαρά μούφερε το γράμμα σου, αδύνατο να σου το πώ. Πίσω από τις γραμμές του βρήκα τον αναλλοίωτο ευγενικό ευατό σου που τόσο εξετίμησα και αγάπησα από την Χάλκη.
Αδούλωτες ή ανόρεχτες για δουλεία σκέψεις και ψυχές σαν τις δικές μας μπορούσαν να υπηρετήσουν τον Θεόν και τον πλησίον αλλοιώτικα: από την έδραν λόγου χάριν. Το διαισθανόμουνα από μαθητής. Θυμάσαι δεν ήθελα να γίνω παπάς. Ηθελα καθηγητής…
Τώρα είμαστε μέσα στον χορό και θα χορέψουμε. Είναι άλλωστε αργά για οποιαδήποτε αλλαγή. Από τα 40 και ύστερα τέτοια αποτολμήματα είναι ανώφελα. Αν δεν ήτανε για τον κόσμο, τον οποίο που φαίνεται πως με την δύναμι του Θεού κάπως τον υπηρετώ, θα είχα βγή προ πολλού από τις τάξεις του ΚΛΗΡΟΥ, που νομίζω πιο διεφθαρμένη και διεστραμμένη και μικρόψυχη τάξισ δεν υπάρχει άλλη κοινωνική.
Για την Χάλκη δεν το λέγω. Ηθελα πολύ να έβλεπα τος δικούς μου. Στην Ιμβρο όμως δεν ειμπορώ να πάγω. Να τους κάνω να έλθουν στην Πόλι, κατάκοιτοι καθώς είναι μόνον για μένα, θάταν τρομερή αξίωσις. Υστερα ο Αγ.Δέρκων δεν με θέλει Αμερικανόν εκεί. Με θέλει Τούρκο. Αλλά εάν πάγω ως Τούρκος, τότε δεν μπορώ να επιστρέψω πειά εδώ, και για πειραματισμούς δεν είναι καιρός.
Ο Θυατείρων προσπάθησε να με κάνει και πάλι ΣΧΟΛΑΡΧΗ, μα ευτυχώς φαίνεται ότι ο Πατριάρχης ακολουθεί την Θεία Βουλή για μένα. Ο Ιούνιος παρήλθεν και …Μιλήτου δεν έγινα. Αργεί ακόμα ο θερισμός. Προχθές γιορτάσαμε τα 30 χρόνια του πατρός Αργυρίδου εις το Λυνν. Πήγα. Θάρθεις στα δικά μου;
Προσπάθησε να μείνεις πιστός στον εαυτό σου. Ρούφηξε την διπλή χαρά των μαθητικών μας χρόνων αν πας στην Χάλκη και έσω πάντοτε ευτυχής εν Κυρίω.
Αδελφικά,
Ιάκωβος
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My dear Fotios,
Five years ago today, I landed in Polis (Constantinople). But today I am locked in the office, a rainy day as it is. Let it be Sunday too.
How much joy your letter brought, impossible to tell you. Behind its lines, I found your unchanging gentle grace that I valued and loved from Halki.
Unenslavable or un-subjectable thoughts and souls like ours could serve God and the neighbor in other ways: from the seat of academia, for example. I could sense it as a student. You remember I didn’t want to be a priest. I wanted to be a teacher…
Now we are in the circle of dance, and we will dance. It is too late for any change. From age forty onwards, such ventures are useless. If it were not for the people, which I somehow seemingly serve with the power of God, I would have left the ranks of the CLERGY a long time ago, which I think is a more corrupt and perverted and small-minded class than any other social class.
About Halki, there is no discussion. I truly wanted to see my people. But I can’t go to Imvros. To make them come to Constantinople, bedridden as they are, for me alone, would be an impossible thing to ask. Then, Metropolitan of Derkon doesn’t want me as an American there. He wants me to become a Turk. But if I go as a Turk, I can never come back here, and this is no time for experiments.
(Archbishop of) Thyateiron tried to make me a SCHOOL PRINCIPAL again, but fortunately, it seems that the Patriarch is following the Divine Will about me. June passed, and …I did not become (Metropolitan of ) Militos. The harvest is still to come. The day before yesterday, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of Father Argyridou in Lynn (Mass.) I went. Will you be at mine?
Try to stay true to yourself. Soak up the double joy of our student years if you go to Halki and always be happy in the Lord.
Fraternally,
Iakovos
Wow, it’s true, Archbishop Iakavos will forever remain a legend in Eastern Orthodoxy and forever be loved for standing up for our faith and his noble principles.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, foolish Patr. Bartholomew and arrogant Rasputin Karloutsos hustle their publicity machine, hoping to delude us, into believing their silly awards mean something.
Ha!
Truly a joy to read this historical letter!
A gem who was able to shine like a beacon of light onto the faces of his faithful, who still love him today…. Truly a beloved leader! ☦️
I think Helleniscope is trying to read more than there is in this letter. If you ask ANY professional class they will tell you their trade is their most corrupt (Politicians, Bankers, Lawyers, Academics and of course Clergy… etc, etc…) Any Institution ran by human beings will also carry the sins and shortcomings of our human nature… However I don’t think there is any other Institution such as the Church that has produced so many and diachronically revered and respected personalities Saints, Martyrs, Confessors… as the saying goes: “εκεί που εβασίλευσε η αμαρτία επερίσσεψε η χάρις”. That’s why the Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has been the most long standing Institution to this day and that’s why it has drawn the ire and ilk of the Devil and those puppeteered by the devil. I think one big mistake Helleniscope is making is to focus on criticizing Persons and individuals (something which is antiChristian) and not specific actions. A last point I wanted to make. Athenagoras wanted Iakovos to come as a Turkish citizen so that he could return and possibly take over as Patriarch after Athenagoras (that’s the meaning of the word Turk, each Greek from Constantinople is more Greek than all the Greek Americans combined since they maintained Christianity and the Greek language both at home and in the Church amidst a most hostile and oppressive environment unlike here in the USA for example)
Helleniscope is not trying to read more than the letter of a 40-yr old Iakovos at the beginning of his illustrious visionary career.
He had the guts and the vision to go where he saw it would benefit humanity. While today’s priests, many of who are much wealthier than the average faithful, are complying with our disgraceful leadership both in America and in Constantinople. AND THEY ARE WILLING TO RISK NOTHING.
If your assessment is correct about Athenagoras’s wishes , then I admire Iakovos even more. It means that he personally viewed being an AMERICAN more honest than being a Turkish Patriarch.
Jake loved America unconditionally and he loved Kate Smith singing God Bless America, which was done frequently at events in which he was present.
You don’t get the same vibe from the present group of sissy-boys in charge. They are essentially anti-American , much like most of the Greeks in Greece.
AXIOS! ✝️Archbishop Iakovos
truly worthy of
Presidential Medal of Freedom 1979 –
tragic he wasn’t Patriarch.
A very, very different “political” crowd was entertained back during his reign. During an early 1980’s Clergy-Laity Banquet held at the New York Hilton, if memory serves me well, the keynote address was given by the very republican (then United Nations Head, Jeanne Kirkpatrick.)
It was alleged that he was very close to the elder Bush’ family. O.K.-what we are surmising -maybe alleging is that; a way, way different “crowd” than what is “entertained” today was in power-play.
Personally, I find it was a bit “classier”- a bit more “conservative” and probably a much better “crowd” to hang with. All the more kudos to him for going that route.
When he marched in Selma, MLK was as “conservative” as one of color, even by today’s standards. That he would even entertain to march with the anti-patriotic of today, (of all stripes and colors) would be ludicrous. I just wish we would have appreciated him more.
Thirty years ago Kotrotsios uncle Meleton cast the deciding vote against Jake being patriarch. Jake sent Karloutsos to the White House to get support but instead Karloutsos obtained carte blanche. Then Bart asked Karloutsos to fly his nephew to America, Karloutsos used the archdiocese travel agency but “forgot” to tell them not to bill the archdiocese (ie, Karloutsos committed embezzlement). Karloutsos then told Bart that Karloutsos got fired for getting his nephew a ticket. A decade earlier Karloutsos got fired again for investing archdiocese funds in Chris Demetriades Pelham Esplanade fiasco (ever the fad-chaser, he never understood buy low, sell high). Jake was incredible, spontaneous, brilliant. His favorite word was “efthikrisia”. He could help people on the spur of the moment and insisted no one know. The number of people’s lives he blessed with just a simple phone call can never be measured. Jake kept NCC from endorsing balkan intervention, which is why Karloutsos was ordered to dump him. Bart told Jake to set up Ligonier, except Bart wanted everyone under Bart. So Bart got rid of Jake essentially for insubordination and insurrection, which Jake was not guilty of – it was the other attendees that forced independence. Karloutsos learned his trade in Richard Daley’s Chicago Machine, or at least that was his own selling point about his “skills”. Once Karloutsos son hit his head at Aspen, but Karloutsos didn’t want to interrupt hobnobbing so asked others to take Michael to the hospital. And Jake’s golden maxim was it does not matter where you go, but what you do there, it does not matter which group you attend, but if you promote Orthodoxy to the group (good) or the group to Orthodoxy (bad). When Jake gave his speech at Demetrios enthronement in both languages, Karloutsos threw a hissy fit, arguing Jake was only supposed to use one language. And contrary to extremists on both sides, Jake argued for MORE English, not all Greek, or all English. And he pointed out the greatest defenders of Greek had kids who were horrible in Greek (in fact the parents themselves were pretty horrible as well – as comical as Papadopoulos trying to speak Catharevusa). He was wise, a steady pilot, quick to respond to changes in reality. In the 1970s he had a Gallup taken which told him Greek American Orthodoxy lacked a unity of vision, and this disunity will now be our end. And yes, Jakes mastery of both languages, despite his accent, was incredible.
“Listen to what they say not what they do”. Jesus nothing if not anticlerical. Jesus preferred syncretist Samaritans to fundamentalist Pharisees and traditionalist Sadducees.
Jake went to both Dukakis Democrat and Bush GOP conventions, just as Demetrios went to both. But the Gyro Mafia chose to only see the GOP. It was Sotirhos that was buddies with Bush