#14: Anatolian Hellenism (c. 1902)
Another comes to mind, a fatherless Greek youth from
Marsovan, whose mother was poor and blind. He used to come
to school over the stones of the snowy streets in winter,
carrying his one pair of cheap shoes in his hand till he
reached the fountain in the College yard, where he would
wash his feet in the icy water, put on his shoes for decency,
wear them during the day, and then carry them again as he
walked barefoot to his house in the evening. Later he was
for many years an industrious laborer and an earnest preacher
of the gospel.
The Greek community in Marsovan was never large, only a few
hundred souls or perhaps a thousand at most. Nor did they
represent the upper levels of Greek wealth or learning.
Most of them belonged to a clan of miners brought some
generations earlier from the miners of the Trebizond
mountains to work the silver mines of Gumush Maden at the
upper end of our plain. Some digging and smelting continued
to our day, but it gradually ceased to be profitable and
some families of miners whose ancestors were virtually
serfs at first started to seek work and bread in other
places. But the Greek people had in Athens one of the
world's proud historic capitals, though dilapidated then
by foreign domination. They had a Greek country, though
rather distant and inaccessible for the peasant stock of
Asia Minor. Above all they were the chief keepers of the
Byzantine heritage and the priceless treasures of the
Greek Orthodox Church, though wars and oppression had
almost crushed the semblance of life in some places.
In ancient and ruined graveyards, it was touching to
read such Christian epitaphs a thousand years old as,
"Here lies the servant of God, Daniel"; "Here lies the
deaconess, Maria", in regions where there were no
present day Christians.
..............................................................
The Greek priest of our town was a kind-hearted, warm-
hearted Christian man and we became good friends. For
quite a time he was a familiar figure on our premises
as he came to attend such Theological lessons as he
could find conducted in Turkish, the only language he
really knew, though, of course, he read the liturgy
and conducted the church services in Greek. The Greek
community school was very elementary, and to bridge
the gap between it and our First Form lessons, we
maintained special classes in College and Girls' School
for several years. The priest was much interested in
these special classes, as he was in the occasional trips
of students to preach in village churches. He was not
afraid of our taking any sectarian attitude. The first
time I ever was invited to preach in an Eastern Church,
when I questioned the priest as to his confidence in so
inviting me, he said, "I know you won't say anything in
my church that would be unfriendly to me".
NEXT: A memorable sermon
(c. 1902)
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