Greeting by His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America
At the A. Fantis School OXI Day Celebration
Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral
Brooklyn, New York
October 27, 2022
Dear Protopresbyter Evagoras,
Principal Tasoulas and Assistant Principal Lilikaki,
Beloved Students, Teachers and Supporters of this School,
Tomorrow is the Twenty-eighth of October – a solemn day for all Greeks around the world. For on this day, in the year 1940, the Greek People stood up for freedom and took their stand against tyranny.
Like the famous Three Hundred Spartans – who held off the invading Persian Empire for a critical week, so as to rouse the Greeks to defend their lands – the brave Greeks who said “NO” to the Fascists of World War Two caused a vital delay that helped all free people to win that war. For it was the courage of the Greeks that forced the Nazis to invade Greece, and this ultimately led to a costly delay for the enemies of freedom. Greece paid a heavy price for standing up to tyranny – a price that many of your families might have paid. The period known as the Κατοχή – the occupation of Greece by armies of Nazi Germany – was the result of that “OXI,” and many died as a result.
But what never died was the love of freedom and the love of democracy – the rule “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” to employ the phrase of President Abraham Lincoln, in his famous Gettysburg Address.
I am so proud of this School for taking the time to celebrate OXI Day. You keep this memory alive and pass it on within the community. We must never forget these Heroes of 1940, the Greeks who refused to give up, despite the tremendous odds against them.
As I said in my encyclical Letter this year for the Observance of OXI Day:
… such valor can never be forgotten. Because in the collective courage of the Greek People, and their willingness to undergo unspeakable hardship for the sake of liberty, we have an image of the victory of the Martyrs of old, and a pattern to which we hold ourselves, for a future that is lived in freedom.
That is why your celebration today brings such honor to your School, to your Cathedral, to our Archdiocese and to the Omogeneia. You have made a choice to remember and to commemorate the bravery of these souls who have now gone before us into life eternal. You have confirmed the saying of the great Winston Churchill, who said this of the Heroes of 1940:
Hence, we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.
And so, all of you are to be congratulated for this celebration today.
And all of you are to be thanked.
May this day always be remembered, and may your love for your Mother Greece, always increase.