KALOPOTHAKES, MICHAEL DEMETRIUS:

Greek Protestant; b. at Areopolis (27 m. s. of Sparta), Laconia, Dec. 20, 1825; d. at Athens June 29, 1911. He came of a family of considerable distinction, and at the age of ten entered a school which had recently been established at Acropolis by two American Presbyterian missionaries, G. W. Leyburn and S. Houston, where he formed the habit of daily reading and study of the Bible. He then spent two years (1841-43) in the gymnasium at Athens, and on graduation was for five ¹ years head master of an intermediate school at Gytheion, in Laconia. After five years of study in the medical school of the University of Athens (M.D., 1853), Kalopothakea entered the army as a surgeon. In 1850 he had become a regular attendant at the services conducted by the American missionary Jonas King (q.v.), and when King was condemned judicially for attacking the Greek Church by publishing extracts from the Greek Church Fathers against the worship of the saints and of the Virgin, Kalopothakes, hitherto a member of the Orthodox Church, felt himself unable to remain connected with a communion which could countenance such a course on the part of the government. He accordingly determined to devote himself to the cause of religious liberty in Greece, and, after taking the regular course at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, he was ordained by the East Hanover Presbytery of Virginia in 1857 and returned to Greece to take up his life-work.

Perceiving that the only way of beginning his task would be through the press, to which the Greek constitution allows wide scope, Kalopothakea determined to found a religious paper which should stand for entire liberty of conscience, and be the means of disseminating Protestant doctrines among a far wider circle than could be reached by pulpitpreaching. He accordingly established, in 1858,the weekly (now fortnightly) " Star of the East," which, by reason of its criticisms of the established church, exposed ² its editor for nearly two decades to the most virulent attacks from his opponents. From 1859 until his retirement from active life in 1904 Kalopothakes was also Greek agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society, and for a few years he held a similar position under the American Bible Society until it withdrew from Greece in 1886. In this capacity Kalopothakes traveled widely throughout the country, often in considerable personal danger; but he succeeded in establishing a system of colporteurs, whom he superintended for forty-five years. This circulation of the Scriptures Kalopothakes regarded as of paramount importance for the regeneration of Greece, yet he also saw the necessity of the dissemination of religious tracts and books to impress upon the people the duty of studying and obeying the Bible. In this work he received invaluable assistance from the Religious Tract Society of London, and besides this phase of his activity he found time to publish not only several volumes of his own sermons and a long series of " Children's Special Service Mission " leaflets, but also translations of such works as Butler's Analogy, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and A. A. Hodge's Outlines of Theology, while from 1868 to 1894 he was also editor of the illustrated monthly " Child's Paper," of which he had been the founder.

Previous to 1864 Kalopothakea did not preach, his time being too fully occupied by his work in publication. In 1860 he opened the first Sundayschool in Greece, to which even children of Orthodox parents came until, eight weeks later, the school was mobbed, after which only the ³ only the children of the few Greek Protestants then in Athens were received. During this period a small group of Protestants formed about him, their meetings being held in King's house until King discontinued his preaching in 1864; while from that year until 1871 they met in Kalopothakes' house, where he and George Constantine, the second Greek to enter the Protestant ministry, preached alternately. Kalopothakes had at first conducted his work independently of any missionary society, although small ontributions were given him by the American and Foreign Christian Union and by the Virginian Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the United States. From the outbreak of the American Civil War until 1872 the American and Foreign Missionary Union supported his work, the Southern Presbyterian Church carrying it on from that year until 1886.

It was, however, the desire of Kalopothakes that the Greek Protestant churches should be self-supporting, and in 1886, after four organizations --- at Athens, Piraeus, Volo, and Janina --- had been formed, the Greek Evangelical Synod was constituted, the church at Salonica being added in 1893. Since 1886, therefore, Greek Protestant work has been carried on by this synod, with the aid of friends in England ⁴ and the United States; and in 1894, that he might be free for the manifold activities demanded by the synod, Kalopothakea resigned the pastorate of the Athens church, which he had established in 1870. This work for the synod, together with his labors for the Bible Society and the publication department, occupied him until his death, and in his closing years he could see Greek Protestants possessed of a constitutional guaranty of freedom of worship and speech, this arousing the Orthodox Church to renewed activity to counteract the influences of Protestantism. Kalopothakes likewise had intense sympathy with the poor and suffering. He was connected for years with various philanthropic societies, such as the Parnassos Club for newsboys; he was one of the founders of the Greek Society for

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the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; he habitually visited prisoners, to whom he was often permitted to preach; and during the Cretan insurrection of 1866-69 he not only assisted in relieving the Cretan refugees, but he also established in the suburbs of Athens schools for thousands of refugee children.

DEMETR1US KALOPOTHAKES.