Panos Demetrios Callimachos

Background

Panos Demetrios Callimachos was born Demetrios Paximadas on December 4, 1879 in Madytos, Dardanelles, Turkey; the son of Panagiotis Paximadas, a public employee in Madytos, and Grammatiki Paximadas.

Education

He was educated in Constantinople, Smyrna, and Athens. While a divinity student at the University of Athens, he joined Hellenismos, a society dedicated to the fulfillment of Greek territorial aspirations.

Career

After receiving the D. D. degree in 1902, he became the managing editor of the society's official organ and also worked for Akropolis, an Athens newspaper. Later, as a lecturer for Regeneration, a society devoted to the moral and cultural advancement of the Greek people, he traveled throughout Greece and visited Greek-speaking communities in Asia Minor, the Holy Land, Egypt, and the Sudan. While secretary of the Patriarchate of Alexandria (1906 - 1914), Callimachos was granted leave to study the manuscripts in the monasteries of the island of Patmos and published The Patriarchate of Alexandria in Abyssinia. As a volunteer chaplain in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, he took part in a number of battles. His war dispatches appeared in the Athens press, and his wartime memoirs were published in two small pamphlets: The Giganto Macheia of Kikis and Immortal Greece.

Callimachos arrived in the United States late in 1914 with his wife and his surviving son to help revitalize the Panhellenic Union, the purpose of which was to keep the spirit of Hellenism alive among the Greeks in America. In 1915 he became the editor of the newly founded Greek-language daily National Herald, established in New York City to combat the proroyalist policies of its rival, Atlantis. Callimachos espoused the cause of Greek liberalism and argued that Greece had to throw its lot in with the Allies during World War I if it hoped to fulfill its territorial aspirations. He resigned as editor of National Herald in 1918 because of differences with the publisher. He served as priest of St. Constantine's Church in Brooklyn; temporarily managed and edited National Renaissance, a monthly magazine devoted to Hellenic topics; and was a part-time professor at the short-lived St. Athanasius Seminary in Astoria, Queens, before returning to his former position with the Herald in 1922. That same year, Callimachos was among those who accompanied Meletios Metaxakis, the deposed head of the church of Greece, to Constantinople for his enthronement as patriarch. He retained his liberal affiliations and concern with Greek-American affairs after the heat of the partisan battles began to wane, kept in close touch with developments within the Greek Orthodox Church in America, resisted the spirit of assimilation that swept the country in the 1920's, and joined the Greek-American Progressive Association, which advocated the preservation and perpetuation of Greek language, customs, and traditions.

Callimachos retained his strong attachment to the Greek Orthodox Church in America. He welcomed the truce that had been reached by the contending factions in 1931 and became a warm admirer of Archbishop Athenagoras, who was elevated in 1947 to the patriarchate. His relations with the new archbishop, Michael, were friendly, and both Patriarch Athenagoras and Michael sought his opinions on matters relating to the church in the United States.

During World War II, Callimachos was active as a speaker, journalist, clergyman, and relief worker. Changes in the ownership of the Herald and differences with the new publisher again caused him to resign, and in 1944 he became the editor of Eleutheros Typos ("Free Press"), a Greek-language weekly. In the closing stages of World War II he bitterly denounced the Greek Left and those who aided it in the United States. This, combined with his interest in current events and the writing of articles on the history of the more important Greek Orthodox church parishes in New York City, absorbed his interests until 1947, when he was recalled by the new publisher of the Herald to become emeritus editor. His last work, How and Why Americans Succeed, was aimed at a Greek audience inspired by the postwar influence of the United States. Callimachos was among the last of the Panhellenists who continued to write about Hellenic causes in the spirit of the pre- and post-World War I eras.

He died in New York City.

Achievements

• He encouraged Greek-Americans to maintain their Greek heritage in the United States and opposed the restoration of the Greek monarchy. He was honored by the Greek government and the Greek Orthodox Church for his many services; among the honors was the ecclesiastical title master of the ecumenical throne.

Religion

Later, as a lecturer for Regeneration, a society devoted to the moral and cultural advancement of the Greek people, he traveled throughout Greece and visited Greek-speaking communities in Asia Minor, the Holy Land, Egypt, and the Sudan.

He retained his liberal affiliations and concern with Greek-American affairs after the heat of the partisan battles began to wane, kept in close touch with developments within the Greek Orthodox Church in America, resisted the spirit of assimilation that swept the country in the 1920's, and joined the Greek-American Progressive Association, which advocated the preservation and perpetuation of Greek language, customs, and traditions.

Callimachos retained his strong attachment to the Greek Orthodox Church in America.

Politics

Callimachos espoused the cause of Greek liberalism and argued that Greece had to throw its lot in with the Allies during World War I if it hoped to fulfill its territorial aspirations.

He opposed the restoration of the Greek monarchy in 1935 and the regime of John Metaxas (who seized power in Greece in 1936), but later conceded that the Metaxas government was preferable to Communist rule.

Connections

On July 24, 1908, in Cairo, he married Olga Andres; they had two sons.

Spouse:

Olga Andres

References

• The Greeks in the United States