Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna

Chrysostomos Kalafatis (Greek: Χρυσόστομος Καλαφάτης; 8 January 1867 – 9 September 1922), also known as Saint Chrysostomos of Smyrna, Chrysostomos of Smyrna and Metropolitan Chrysostom, was the Greek Orthodox metropolitan bishop of Smyrna (İzmir) between 1910 and 1914, and again from 1919 until his death in 1922. He was born in Triglia (today Tirilye) in the then Ottoman Empire (now part of Turkey) in 1867. He aided the Greek campaign in Smyrna in 1919 and was subsequently killed by a lynch mob after Turkish troops took back the city at the end of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. He was declared a martyr and a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece on 4 November 1992. Kalafatis was born in Triglia (Tirilye) in 1867, one of eight children born to Nikolaos and Kalliopi Lemonidos Kalafatis. He studied at the Theological School of Halki starting at the age of 17, and after graduating served as Archdeacon to Konstantinos Valiadis, the then Metropolitan of Mytilene. Kalafatis served as chancellor and in 1902 became the Metropolitan of Drama, a city in northeastern Greece. His vocal nationalism caused the Sublime Porte to request his removal in 1907, and he eventually returned to Triglia. In 1910 Kalafatis became the Metropolitan of Smyrna. Kalafatis had not been in good terms with the Ottoman authorities and he was displaced in 1914. When the Hellenic Army occupied Smyrna in 1919, at the beginning of the Greco-Turkish war, Kalafatis was reinstated to his office as metropolitan bishop. Chrysostomos was on bad terms with High Commissioner Stergiadis (appointed by the Greek Prime Minister Venizelos in 1919) due to the latter's strict stance against discrimination and abuse in dealing with the local Turks, and his opposition to inflammatory nationalist rhetoric used in sermons, which he perceived as too political.