Grigorios Papaflessas, the raso-wearing fighter and martyr of the freedom of Greece. An important warrior of the 1821 rebirth. He offered himself as a burnt offering in the struggle for the holy faith of Christ and the freedom of Greece. He fought heroically at Maniaki, fell fighting and entered the pantheon of heroes.
Papaflessas' real or worldly name was Georgios Dikaios of Demetrios, one of his father's 28 children. Flessas is likely to be a corruption of Ephesios or Ephesaeos. Thus, the priest Flessas became Papaflessas. His birthplace is recorded as the village of Poliani in Messinia and his year of birth as 1786 or 1788. He studied at the famous school of Dimitsana but did not finish it. In 1816 he became a monk and became a monk at the monastery of Panagia Velanidia in Kalamata and received the name Grigorios. An unruly spirit, he came into conflict with the bishop of Monemvasia and left the monastery and took refuge in the monastery of Rekitsa. There he comes into conflict with a local Turk over the monastery's assets and takes refuge in Zakynthos. At this time, Theodoros Kolokotronis lives in Zakynthos, with whom he meets and becomes friends. In Constantinople, later, he is ordained an archimandrite by Patriarch Gregory V. Anagnostopoulos initiates him into the Filiki Eteria on June 18, 1818 and signs the company's documents as Competent and uses the initials as a distinguishing mark AM. In May 1820, with Georgios Leventis in Bucharest, they drafted the "General Plan". Papaflessas proposed to Alexandros Ypsilantis the start of the revolution in the Peloponnese and presented it as ready for this purpose, using forged documents. The Ismaili meeting decided to send Papaflessas to the Peloponnese as the representative of the Leader.
Papaflessas departed from Constantinople for the Peloponnese at the end of November 1820. On this journey to Mani he passed through the Kidonies, the islands Hydra and Spetses. On these islands he finds the world divided into two camps as far as he is concerned. He finds warm supporters and opponents. The leaders in the Peloponnese receive him with suspicion. He participates in the assembly of Vostitsa and presents the orders of Alexander Ypsilantis for the start of the revolution from the Morea. There are reservations and it is proposed that he withdraw to the monastery of Sideroporta. He threatens them that he will start the fight alone. He moves in areas of Gortynia and the rest of the Peloponnese, proclaiming that the day of the Annunciation, the 25η March, has been designated as the starting day of the fight. He meets important captains, later brave chieftains Kolokotronis, Petrobeis Mavromichalis and others.
At the Fall of Tripolitsa, according to tradition, when it was necessary to raise a flag, Papaflessas tore his deep blue tunic (the so-called anteri), formed a square and ordered his first lad and well-known fighter, Panagiotis Kefalas, to tear two strips from his white foustanella, so that they formed a cross. This flag, which is considered by many to have formed the basis of the first official flag of the Greek state, was raised with frenzied celebration at the Turkish headquarters of the now free city. He actively participated in the war events with heroism and self-denial. In many battles his presence is felt together with his lads.
The Second National Assembly in Astros, Kynouria, elected him Minister of the Interior, a position he held until his death. During the civil war, he initially sided with Kolokotronis but later switched to the opposing camp.
The heroic end of Papaflessas.
Ibrahim Pasha sweeps through the Peloponnese and Papaflessas decides to confront him at Maniaki. His army consists of 700 fighters. Responding to his appeal, the nephew of Dimitris Flessas reinforces the army with one hundred and fifty young men, A. Koumoundouros, Pan. Bouras, Adamakis Apostolopoulos and N. Koulocheras with their retinue. There, Giorgis Boutos from Meligalas and Karakitsos from Katsaros strengthened his army. He moved towards Frutzala. There he met with the unarmed fighters of Niokastro and with Maniatis Mourtzinos. He learned that the government had decided to amnesty the prisoners. So, on May 14, he sat down and wrote recommending that they be released without the slightest fuss, and especially Kolokotronis, who should be given the command of the army immediately. He forgot for the good of the country that Kolokotronis was his political opponent. The general good, the freedom of the country, comes first. Orthodoxy. His army now amounts to 1500 men. He receives good news: from Demetrius Plapoutas from Aetos that he is coming to join him with 1600 nomads, from the captains of Arcadia, from the village of Mali, seven hours' journey from Draina, that they were there with 2000 fighters, from his brother Nikitas that he had reached Frutzala and was coming with 700 nomads, and from Elias Katsakos from Kalamata that he had 1000 warriors under his command. All together we numbered five thousand. A number, again, small to face the numerous army of Ibrahim. At the moment when Papaflessas was preparing to leave Draina, Elias Kermas arrived to his aid with 120 Kontovounisi, Thanasoulas Kapetanakis with 80, P. Kefalas with 20, Pieros Voides and Tsalafatinos with 120 Maniates, St. Kapetanakis with 20, Livas, Bitsianis and his brother Giorgis Dikaios with 80. Thus, when he arrived at Maniaki, Papaflessas had with him as many as two thousand men. On the 20η On May 11, Ibrahim's army made its appearance. Many Greeks, as soon as they saw it, were afraid and fled. He orders them to count how many fighters remained and they found less than a thousand. They are 500 or according to some 600. As they were gathered, he delivers a fiery speech to them, reminding them of the victories at Valtetsi, Levidi, Grana, Vervena and the destruction of Dramalis' army.
– Wherever they are, he tells them, fifteen thousand patriots are coming to our aid, Plaputas and all the Arcadians, my brother Nikitas, Katsakos and other Maniates. They will be here in an hour. They will surround Ibrahim's army and strike it from the back. Brothers! the homeland is waiting for us to be glorified again by our victory! When Papaflessas had finished speaking, the Maniate Boides said these memorable words:
– Let us go to our drums and whoever remains silent, let him listen to the women's lamentations!… Ibrahim advances, his troops defying the shots of the Greek fighters. At noon, the enemy's trumpets called the Egyptian army to cease its attack and withdraw to have a snack. They suggest that they leave while the Egyptians are eating… he replies - I told you before and now I tell you not to put the fleeting thing in your mind at all, because we are lost for nothing if we fall into the enemy's fire. No, I will not hand the Greeks over to the incessant rifle fire of the regular. Then we await the help which, as you know, will arrive at the hour. Go now to your posts!..
At Papaflessas's drum, Turks and Greeks mingled and became one. As the enemies wore red uniforms, "the whole place turned red from them and from the blood." Papaflessas' standard-bearer, Demetrius from Chios, so that the flag would not fall into the hands of the enemy, tore it up, thrust it into his chest, broke the cross of the pole and put it on his scythe, and with sword in hand, like lightning, he charged at the Turkish army and fled. "His bravery is inimitable," writes Photakos.
The smoke of the battle slowly cleared. The victors then began to dog the slain. Then they began to cut off their ears, to take them to Ibrahim to get bribes. Then they quarreled "among them which of them had more."
Finally, Ibrahim descended on the drum of Papaflessa. After praying to Allah for victory, he ordered his army to fire three victorious batteries. Then he ordered the corpse of Papaflessa to be brought to him. They found his headless body. Next to him lay the young Frenchman dead and all around were a multitude of the corpses of the enemies. A little further on, they also found the hero's head. They brought it to Ibrahim; he told them to drive a tall stake into the ground and stand the slain man upright by tying him to it. Then they fastened the head to the body, after having first washed the blood from his beard. Then "the dead man appeared as if he were alive."
Ibrahim, after "watching him for a while, motionless and speechless," turns and says to his officers:
– Truly, he stood up as a capable and brave man. And it would have been better, even if we had suffered so much more damage, to have captured him alive, because he would have been of great use to us.
"The Battle of Leonidas" was over. Maniaki took its place, in the pages of our History, next to Thermopylae and Alamana.
Now, east of the village of Maniaki, in the chapel of "Holy Resurrection", lie the bones of those who fell in this battle, reminding us, the descendants, that our freedom, as Solomos says in our national anthem, is taken from the bones of the Holy Greeks.
Photo By Stafylis – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9627399, https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/
