Sons of the devil and St Paul’s city – a sequel

The metropolitan of Thessaloniki, Anthimos, has never been known to be a man of compassion and peace, especially when the subject contained any of the words Turkey, Turkish or Turk.

Unluckily, he was elected and ordained a metropolitan on July 14, 1974, about a week before the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus. Despite his spectacular credentials within the Greek Orthodox Church, he probably will never become the ecumenical patriarch as millions of Orthodox fear such an elevation may lead to a Turkish invasion of Athens.

His Eminence Anthimos is the author of the leaflet “The Lord’s Voice” (1965-72) which some film producers claim later inspired “The Lord of the Rings.”

On Aug. 3, Anthimos spoke on the occasion of the sermon of the Sunday Holy Mass at the Agios Demetrios Church in Thessaloniki. In his speech he complained of Thessaloniki’s warm reception of Turkish tourists who, according to the metropolitan, right away visit the city’s Ataturk’s museum (where Ataturk was born). “Just think of what Hellenism went through because of that man!” he said, deploring the habit.

He then threatened the mayor of Thessaloniki that he would find young people and destroy road signs if the mayor, as he pledged, made some of the city’s signs bilingual (Greek and Turkish).

Anthimos claimed that Thessaloniki was established by St. Paul in the name of Jesus Christ although the city bears the name of one of Alexander’s half-sisters 300 years before Christ. “And St. Paul has honored us with two epistles which were in the New Testament, that is, the Gospel!” the metropolitan said. He probably caused shy smiles as some in his audience may have thought: The Gospels are one...