Dionysius (Pap test)

Dionisios Papanikolόbulos was born in the village of Kato Salmeniko Akhayi. He graduated from the theological faculty of the University of Athens in 1910. A year after the outbreak of World War I, he became a naval priest on the flagship of the Greek Navy, the armored cruiser Averof .

On board the Averof, he was lucky in 1919 to arrive in Constantinople , liberated by the allies, where the Greek naval base was located, but three years later, in 1922, he witnessed the evacuation of the Greek army from Smyrna , which became the penultimate stage of the most tragic page in history modern Greek Hellenism, the Asia Minor catastrophe .

In the rank of archimandrite ^[2] Dionysius continued to serve aboard the Averof until the outbreak of World War II .

Averof on the eve and at the beginning of World War II

In the interwar period, the financial resources of Greece did not allow an increase in naval forces. Researcher Dimitris Halon believes that to a large extent the restriction of the pre-war financial resources of the state was due to the fact that after 1922 Greece was forced to shelter 1.25 million refugees from Asia Minor and East Thrace and that this problem remained acute until the outbreak of World War II ^{[ 3]} .

The immense needs of the ground forces limited the financing of Navy projects. D. Halon believes that in addition to financial problems, the Navy was put on the back burner and was considered a “kind of luxury” of “limited use” ^[3] . A few subsidies were aimed at supplying the fleet ships with the necessary ammunition. All these problems could not but affect the condition of the veteran of the fleet of the battleship Averof.

The tubes of the ship's boilers were to be replaced in 1934. However, only at the beginning of 1939 they were ordered in Belgium, where they ended up when this country was occupied by the Germans ^[4] .

Since November 1939, Averof, along with a number of destroyer veterans, was manned with a minimal crew and was practically in a sludge.

On October 28, 1940, the Italian invasion of Greece began. The Greek army repelled the attack and transferred hostilities to the territory of Albania.

The ongoing Greek victories forced Hitler Germany to come to the aid of their ally. The Germans invaded Greece on April 6, 1941 from the territory of their allied Bulgaria. Unable to break through the Metaxas Line right away , German divisions marched through Yugoslav territory and reached Thessaloniki . The road to Athens for German divisions was almost open.

Initiator of salvation and transition of the battleship Averof to Egypt

From the beginning of the German invasion on April 6 to April 12, the entire water area surrounding the Attica peninsula was continuously bombarded by German aircraft. The crew of the battleship Averof, anchored in the bay of Elefsis, was shot down by a German plane. Amid the preparations for the evacuation of warships, on April 12, the fleet command decided to leave the Averof in Eleusis, remove anti-aircraft guns from it and send the crew to help the coastal units. However, the next day the order was canceled - the command hesitated on the fate of the Averof.

On April 17, the crew was announced that the fleet’s headquarters had decided “with honor” to sink the ship off the islet of Psittaleya , at the entrance to the historic Salamis Strait .

The senior of the officers remaining on board, Lieutenant P. Damilatis, in violation of the order, decided to leave. Archimandrite Dionysius incited the crew to disobedience regarding the order of the headquarters and used all his eloquence for this. On Maundy Thursday, he called on the crew and turned to him with tears in his eyes: “My children, they want to sink our legendary ship. How will your soul endure it? Will such an inglorious end be at our most illustrious ship, Averof? We will be cursed from heaven by the souls of our heroes of sailors, Miaulis , Canaris , Bubulina . Look through the eyes of your soul, guys, at our admiral Pavel Kunturiiotis in heaven. He cries and conjures us not to allow such an end to the ship, but to give it an end worthy of his glory. What do you guys say? ”

In one voice, the sailors and officers answered: "Pop, we will do what you tell us." Dionysius continued: “We must pick up the Averof and leave. We must save his honor. ” The crew agreed, but Dionysius continued his moral training and naval historiography cites it as an example for today's naval priests: “Please note that we have a five hundred percent chance of drowning when passing by a minefield. If God allows us to pass over it without any problems, we have a three hundred percent chance of drowning in the barriers of Pittalia. If there God allows us to pass, we have a two hundred percent chance of dying along the way from aircraft bombs. If we go through this, we will save the honor of Averof and our fleet. If - God forbid - we drown, then we will all go glorified to heaven, and the honor of our fleet will remain forever in Greek history as a legend. What do you guys say after that. ”

Although no one from the crew expressed an objection and the answer was “Let's leave, let the will of God come true”, Dionysius crossed himself and continued: “I saw a gray-haired old man in a dream today, thought it was my long-dead father. But the old man calmly told me:“ I’m not your father. I am St. Nicholas and came to tell you that I will be with you. "

The sailors, startled, crossed themselves and with the words "God be with us" went to prepare the ship for the campaign. Dionysius began to go around the rooms and compartments of the ship with the icon of Christ in his hands, and finally fixed it on the tank gun tower with the words: “My children, now our commander is Christ. Do not be afraid. We will win…".

The ship left Elephisis Bay on the night of April 17-18. He broke through the barriers, passed through a minefield without hitting a single mine. The obstacle was the fence near the island of Pittaleia, where the responsible officer refused to open the passage and reported the incident to the headquarters of the fleet. Meanwhile, Damilatis and the group of sailors Averof opened the passage themselves.

The ship headed south, the ship's commander, Ioannis Vlahopoulos, overtook him on a speedboat and took command. The Fleet Chief of Staff sent the following signal to Averof: “God be with you. I coordinate with your allies your flight. "

On the morning of Great Friday, the ship stood on the steep mountain coast of Arcadia , avoiding aerial bombardment. At night, the battleship entered the convoy along with the Hephaestus floating workshop, the destroyers Kunturiiotis , the Niki , the Aspis , and the Glavkos and Katsonis submarines. Dionysius brought out the icon of Epitaph and, along with the crew, sang Easter hymns . On April 23, 1941, the convoy arrived in Egyptian Alexandria ^{[5] [6] [7]} .

Averof, like other ships of the Greek fleet, continued the war based in Alexandria. Due to his age, he was transferred to the Indian Ocean , where he accompanied the allied convoys.

On October 17, 1944, on board the battleship Averof, the emigrant Greek government arrived in Piraeus liberated by the forces of the People's Liberation Army of Greece .

After the war

Almost immediately after the liberation of the country and returning to their homeland, on November 19, 1944, Dionysius was elected Metropolitan of Jeris, Svyatogorsk and Ardamerion Metropolis .

September 25, 1951 was elected Metropolitan of Edessa .

On January 24, 1967, he was dismissed ^[8] by the Black Colonels who came to power under the pretext of old age ^[1] .

He died on March 28, 1968 ^[8] .

On June 3, 2014, the Day of Glory and Remembrance of Metropolitan Dionysius was held at the Cultural Center of the Edessa Metropolis ^[9] .