Chrysostomos of Smyrna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chrysostomos Kalafatis (1867-1922) (Greek: Χρυσόστομος Καλαφάτης), better known as Chrysostomos of Smyrna, was the Greek Orthodox bishop of Izmir between 1910 and 1914, and again from 1919 to his death in 1922.

He was born in Triglia (Zeytinbağı) in 1867. He was killed by a lynch mob in İzmir on 27 August 1922, after the city had been recaptured by Turkish forces at the end of the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). He has been declared a martyr and a Saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Chrysostomos Kalafatis was survived by his nephews, among whom Yannis Elefteriades, who witnessed the arrest and execution of his uncle, having found shelter by his side after the killing of his parents. He escaped to Lebanon, where today, his grandson Michel Elefteriades is a well-known Greek-Lebanese politician, artist and producer.