From the village of Dimitsana, Arcadia in the Peloponnese, Metropolitan Germanos of Patras (1771 - May 30, 1826) was a Greek Priest and one of the leading Hierarchs of the Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire in 1821.
He completed his early schooling in his home village.
By 1796, he was ordained a Deacon by Metropolitan Iakovos of Argos and Nafplio, and given the name Germanos.
In 1797, he was sent to Smyrna to serve under the then Metropolitan Grigorios of Smyrna, the future 3-time Patriarch of Constantinople and Patriarch at the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, who would later be lynched and hanged by the Turks.
He also happened to be from the same small village as Germanos, Dimitsana.
Germanos would follow Grigorios to Constantinople in 1797, for his first election as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, working closely with him.
By 1806 Germanos had been ordained as Metropolitan of Patras.
In his role as Metropolitan Germanos of Patras, he became one of the main organisers of the Greeks in the pre-revolutionary years, was involved in educational improvements and was seen as someone with the authority to settle disputes between different factions.
By 1818 he became a member of Filiki Etaireia and would himself initiate other Greek clergy as members.
Over the next few years, Germanos and other leading Hierarchs of the Peloponnese, played an important role in preparing for the Greek Revolution in the Peloponnese.
On March 25, 1821, Metropolitan Germanos of Patras, proclaimed the National Uprising against the Ottoman Empire, blessing the Flag of the Revolution at the Monastery of Agia Lavra near Kalavryta, setting the Greeks on the path towards Independence.
READ MORE: Commemorating the Kalavryta Massacre of 1943.
