He was one of the most important figures in modern Cypriot history, as the founder and shaper of the independent Republic of Cyprus and the first Cypriot president
Today marks forty-seven years since the death of the National Archdiocese Makarios and the first President of the Republic of Cyprus. Parties and organizations honor his memory with announcements.
We read from polignosi.com
Makarios III is one of the most important figures in recent Cypriot history, as the founder and shaper of the independent Republic of Cyprus and the first Cypriot president. He was and still is, one of the most discussed persons in Cyprus and internationally.
In Cyprus during the years of his presidency, he was loved as much as anyone by his supporters but also hated by his opponents.
Unfortunately, his personality and work have not yet been objectively evaluated as the The Cypriot issue remains unresolved and mainly because many of its decisions still affect the course that things have taken with regard to the national problems that Cyprus faces.
Makarios served as bishop of Kiti (1948-1950), as archbishop and patriarch (1950-1977) and as president of Cyprus (1960-1977). He was born on August 13, 1913 and died on August 3, 1977 after a myocardial infarction, at the age of 64.
Childhood – youth< /strong>
Makarios III, known as Michael Christodoulou Mouskos, was born on August 13, 1913 in the village of Panagia in the district of Paphos, from uneducated farmer parents.
In an interview he told him about his mother who died when he was 11 years old.
“At that time the poor and especially those who lived in the mountains of Cyprus did not take pictures. All I remember about my mother was the day she got sick. The doctor used the same medicine for all diseases. I imagine it would be aspirin. He also gave my mother a pill and she died after a while”.
Makarios basically raised his father Christodoulos Mousko. He worked as a shepherd, next to his shepherd father, and as he said he had never seen the sea…
The school
He was taught his first letters in the elementary school of his village, from where he graduated in 1926. In the same year he was accepted as a cadet at the monastery of Kykkos, in the Troodos mountains. In the school that operated at the time in the monastery, he attended the first high school classes, simultaneously for church initiation and education. In 1933 he won a scholarship from the monastery and enrolled in the 4th grade of the Pancyprian High School in Nicosia. During his high school studies, he lived in Kykkos's neighborhood, Agios Prokopios, near Nicosia. He graduated from the Pancypriot High School with honors in 1936. Then he returned to the monastery of Kykkos where, among other things, he worked as a teacher in the monastery school.
In Athens
On August 7, 1938, he was ordained a deacon by the bishop of Paphos and custodian of the archbishopric throne, Leontios, in Paphos, taking the name Makarios Kykkotis. The following month, with a scholarship from his monastery, he left for higher studies in Athens.
He studied at the Theological School of the University of Athens, from which he graduated in 1942, with honors. He experienced the drama of World War II and the tragedy of the German-Italian occupation at the same time. During the occupation, he joined the resistance and collaborated with Grivas in Organization X. After the liberation, he was ordained in Athens, on January 13, 1946, as an elder and immediately initiated as an archimandrite, by the metropolitan of Argyrokastro, Panteleimon. The ceremony took place at the church of Agia Irini in Athens, where he served as a deacon. Between January and August of 1946, he served as head preacher at the church of Agia Paraskevi in Kallipolis (Piraeus).
In the USA
In September 1946 he won a scholarship from the World Council of Churches for advanced theological studies and left by ship for America, where he arrived after wandering for more than two months. After tutoring (mainly learning the language) in Wellingfort, Philadelphia, he enrolled in January 1947 at Boston University where he majored in sociology of religion.
While he was a student in the United States, in Cyprus the Church began to reorganize and reorganize, which was to take over the leadership of the liberation struggle again. The Church of Cyprus remained without adequate leadership since 1931, due to the persecutions following the October uprising of that year (see entry October). Leontios was elected archbishop in 1947, who died shortly after his election and was replaced by Makarios II, until then bishop of Kyrenia. In the elections to fill the widowed throne of Paphos (held by Leontios until 1947), Makarios was put forward as a candidate but was defeated by his rival Cleopas, former abbot Kykkos. Shortly afterwards, Makarios was again put forward as a candidate for the widowed throne of Kiti and, while in the USA, was elected unanimously on April 8, 1948. He then interrupted his studies and returned to Cyprus on June 9, 1948. On the 13th of the same month, he was ordained and was enthroned as bishop of Kiti by archbishop Makarios II.
Bishop of Kiti (June 13, 1948-October 20, 1950):
In the two years and 4 months that he served as bishop of Kiti, Makarios demonstrated intense religious and national as well as social activity. He founded in his district (which included the cities of Larnaca and Limassol) charitable institutions and organizations, worked to promote education and to improve the living and working conditions of the clergy, toured the entire district giving speeches and preaching, took over and organized the Bureau of the National Archdiocese, he published a magazine of the National Archdiocese (the Hellenic Cyprus magazine published in 1949 and discontinued in 1955) and became the closest collaborator of the old archbishop Makarios II. On October 3, 1948, he delivered his first political speech in Nicosia, at a Cypriot unity rally. It was a harsh indictment against the British colonialists and a wake-up call for the Greeks of Cyprus to fight for the liberation and union of Cyprus with Greece.
Right and Unionist
In 1949 he traveled to Constantinople and toured Greece which had just emerged wounded from the tragedy of the civil war. At that time, Makarios did not hide his political beliefs, which can be summarized as follows: attachment to Greece, fight for the immediate union of Cyprus with Greece, clear placement in the field of the Right, antipathy for the Left and communism, support of institution of kingship in Greece and uncompromising resistance and intransigence in relations with the British rulers. He later gradually modified many of his almost extreme positions, but he maintained until the end the deep religiosity and mystical tendencies that distinguished him, as well as the love for Cyprus and its people.
Referendum
In the same year (1949), he was inspired and suggested to the Ethnic Church of Cyprus the holding of a union referendum to demonstrate the will of the Cypriot people to unite the island with Greece. The referendum, which the British refused to hold, was taken over by the Ethnarchy. Indeed, this was carried out in January 1950 with spectacular results (see referendum entry).
A few months later, on June 26, 1950, the old archbishop Makarios II died. Kitiou Makarios was then put forward as a candidate for the office of archbishop. The bishop of Paphos Cleopas did not run, while the third of the bishops, Cyprianos of Kyrenia, was also put forward as a candidate although he was absent from Cyprus (head of the mission to deliver the referendum volumes to the governments of Athens and London and to the UN headquarters in New York). During the elections, Kitiou Makarios was elected by popular vote as the new archbishop of Cyprus on October 20, 1950. His enthronement took place the same day at the Cathedral of Agios Ioannis in Nicosia. Anthimos Machairiotis was elected as his successor on the throne of Kiti shortly afterwards.
Ethnarchis
Under the conditions of slavery of Cypriot Hellenism, the office of the archbishop of Cyprus was not only religious. He was at the same time a politician, because the leader of the Cypriot Church was elected as the national leader of the Greeks of the island. It must be emphasized here that the Church of Cyprus, alone among all the Churches of the world, elects its highest officials (archbishop and bishops) with the participation of not only clergy but also the people. The final phase of the election takes place with a vote in which the ex officio clergy participate as well as representatives of the people. The popular representatives participating in the election are elected directly by the people by voting.
The role of the archbishop of Cyprus as the head of the nation was formed during the historical course of many centuries, during which they gathered in his person, except for the religious and secular powers (see the entry ethnoarchy).
Consequently, the election of Makarios III as archbishop and ethnoarch in 1950, meant that he assumed, as leader, responsibility for the (already being prepared but without a clear methodology yet) struggle of the Greek Cypriots to shake off the English yoke and unite their island with Greece. At the same time he managed to control the Right faction of Cyprus of which he appeared as the natural leader.
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