Emmanuel Xanthos ΕΜΜΑΝΟΥΗΛ ΞΑΝΘΟΣ
Born 1772 Died Nov. 28, 1852
Section Four, Number 160
The story of the Filiki
Etaireia or Friendly Society as it is called in English has attained mythical
proportions in the story of Greek independence.
That three rather ordinary merchants in Odessa could have created a
secret organization in 1814 which gathered so much momentum by 1821, that the Greek revolution was virtually unstoppable, is nothing short of
a miracle. (1) And yet, without that miracle, Greek history as we know it, would never have happened. One of the instigators was Emmanuel Xanthos. His story is a strange one, involving patriotism, Freemansonry, intrigue, exile, and a sad death.
Emmanuel Xanthos
His Life
Emmanuel was born on the island of Patmos in 1772. His mother came from one of the first families of the island. He studied at the island's renowned Patmiada School (founded in 1713) and was situated inside the Patmos’ monastery where John, the Evangelist had penned the Apocalyse.
In 1792, he joined the Greek merchant class as had so many bright and educated young men living in the Ottoman sphere. His work gave him the opportunity to travel
inside and outside of Ottoman territory and thus absorb the ideas of the
Enlightenment which were circulating everywhere during that period. During this time he was
greatly inspired and influenced by the writings of Adamandios Korais and of Riga Feraios who had died a
martyr at the hands of the Ottomans in 1798 when Emmanuel was just 26.
Echoing the 'Harrowing of Hell' icon, Rigas and Adamandios lift a fallen Greece from a ground littered with broken columns.
In 1810, Xanthos became the secretary of the wealthy Odessa business
man Vassily Xenos. In 1812 he was introduced to two merchants from Ioannina and together they went into business. In 1813, that business brought him to Previsa, Ioannina, and the Ionian
Island of Lefkas where he joined the Freemasons.
1813: A Pivotal Moment
Greece’s first Masonic Lodge, the “Beneficenza”, had been established in 1782 on the island of Corfu. During that time, Greeks of the diaspora, were establishing or joining lodges in the area that is now Greece as well as in many cities in Europe where there was a large Greek population. Greek Freemasonry, once established, flourished, particularly in the Ionian Islands. In 1813, the “Enosis”, the Lefkadian Lodge initiated Emmanuel Xanthos.
Many Greek freemasons were at the forefront of the Greek Revolution: Germanos (the Orthodox Metropolitan of Patras), The Ecumenical Patriarch and martyr Gregorius V, Theodoros Kolokotronis, Alexandros Mavrokordatos, Alexandros and Nikolaos Ypsilantis, Alexandros Mourouzis, and, as most historians agree, Ioannis Kapodistrias himself.(2)
Freemasons offered financial support for the revolution when it
did come. Xanthos and his partners incorporated many of organization's ideas
and structure into the “Filiki Etaireia”.
This was an era of intrigue: secret and semi-secret societies were all the rage in the late 1700s and early 1800s, from the Carbonari in Italy to “para-masonic” societies whose members may or may not have been masons but who certainly had adopted parts of their rituals and some of their ideals. For example, in 1780 the so called Beneficient Cousins had been established in Vienna with the aim of liberating all of the Balkans from the Ottomans. Rigas Feraios belonged to this one. Then there was the Hotel Hellephone (ΕλληνόγλωσονΞενοδοχείον) society in Paris (active in the early 1800s) and the Filommousos Etaireia (Φιλόμουσος Εταιρεία), in Athens formed in 1813. The stated goal of the last two was the spreading of Greek culture but talk of freedom from the Ottomans was also implicit in the mix. In view of potential Ottoman reprisals, these societies had to exist in the shadows. Such organizations helped to establish the environment needed for the formation of the Filiki Etaireia.
September 14, 1814: The Friendly Society is Formed in Odessa
The three founders, Emmanuel Xanthos, Athanasios Tsakalof and Nicolas Skoufas, were all masons. Xanthos was then in his 40s, Skoufas in his mid thirties, and Tsakolof in his mid twenties. Tsakolof was the most educated member of the trio and had been a member of the Hôtel Hellénophone (Ελληνόγλωσσο Ξενοδοχείο).
The plan was to recruit only Greeks and to use their organization to establish “the material and moral means to liberate the nation”. Xanthos had a very jaundiced view of foreign ‘help’ which had so often evaporated into thin air in the past and wrote that Greeks must attempt alone, what was expected in vain and for too long from the philanthropy of Christian kings.
His responsibilities from
the beginning were to act as treasurer, secretary, and to aid in connecting the
organization to prominent sympathizers or recruits. They were very aware that they had to attract more influential Greeks to the cause.
The Founding Trio
The Flag of the Filiki Etaireia
The initials ΗΕΑ meant “Freedom” and ΗΘΣ, "or Death"
1814-1818: The Search for a Leader Proves Difficult
The founders gave themselves code names: Tsakalof was AB, Skoufos ΑΓ, and Xanthos ΑΔ. AA was left open because the trio were still searching for a suitable leader. They understood it had to be someone important. Their first choice would be Ioannis Capodistria, the Corfu born Greek aristocrat who had risen to become the foreign minister of the Tsar of Russia.
Ioannis Capodistria
Progress during \ the first four years of the Etaireia was extremely slow with hardly any new recruits. By 1816 they had initiated Panagiotis Avagnostotopoulos (Παναγιώτης Αναγνωστόπουλος) from Andritsina. This year also saw the initiation of various captains and sea men who had collaborated with the Russians, British and the French in the Ionian islands and who were valued for their fighting spirit and experience. By the end of 1816, Xanthos claimed in his memoires that all Greeks living in Moscow who could be valuable in one way or another were members of the Filiki Etaireia.
1817 and Capodistria's First Refusal
In 1816 Xanthos had initiated Nikolaos Galatis (ΝικόλαοsΓαλάτης) an ambitious man who claimed kinship with Ioannis Capodistria.
Nikolaos Galatis
In 1817 Galatis wrote to Capodistria in Saint Petersburg and requested a meeting of ‘importance’. Capodistria was concerned that having any contact with a secret society fomenting revolution would compromise his position as foreign minister of Russia. So he informed the Tsar and told him he would refuse the meeting. But the Tsar was intrigued and told him to receive Galatis, see what he was up to, and report back. That is what he did. Capodistria refused his offer to head the secret society. He did not believe the time was ripe for a rebellion.
Thanks to Galatis, the Etaireia began to gain influence internationally and garnered a fair amount of money for the cause. Ultimately, however, he was deemed untrustworthy and was assassinated in 1819 on the orders of Xanthos.
He would not be the last person to be assassinated by the Friendly Society. Loyalty was at the core of the organization and any perceived deviation dealt with harshly. (4)
1817 saw the founding trio travelling a great deal. New members were added, the most important being Archbishop of Vienna, Anthimos Gazis (Άνθιμος Γαζής), a man originally from the area of Milies in Pelion. After his initiation he visited Constantinople to meet with Xanthos and then returned to his home in Pelion to open a headquarters there. Later it was decided that the base of the Etaireia in Greece proper would be more safely placed in the Mani, which goes a long way to explain why so many Peloponnesians were prominent in the coming rebellion.
The Organizational Structure of the Filiki Etairia
The entire organization was called the Temple. It was a hierarchical pyramid with the Invisible Authority (the three founders) at the top, Shepherds under them, then Priests, then the Registered and, at the bottom, the Vlamides. Each rank in the hierarchy would initiate new members from the rank immediately below them in the pyramid.
As a member approached the apex of the pyramid, oaths and rituals became more complex. (5) No one was to know who the higher ranking members were and all members were to obey the Invisible Authority without question. Symbols were part of every initiation mix. Some of these came from the Masons or possibly from Tsakalov’s experience in the Hotel Hellephone organization. Candles figured in the initiations and, as initiates moved upward in the pyramid, they would reuse the same candles which had been safeguarded from earlier initiations.
The rank and file not knowing who the capo di capo was proved to be a good recruiting gambit because many initiates assumed that the unknown AA was the Tsar of Russia! (Although the founding members had no avowed faith in foreign help, the faith of the average Greek in Russian help was still high.)
In July of 1818, the headquarters of the Friendly Society moved to Constantinople, the top leaders expanded in number and were named The Twelve Apostles. (Αρχήτων δώδεκααποστόλων)
Their role was to co-ordinate activities in the entire Hellenic world when the time was right. By the end of 1818, each Apostle was based in a different area of the Ottoman Empire. Their duty was to manage the branch of the Etaireia in the location they were in, to recruit more members, and to give them their respective tasks (6)
In 1818 alone nearly two hundred members were initiated into the society. Some of them would become very prominent figures of the revolution itself, such as Grigorios Papaflessas, Theodoros Kolokotronis and ‘Fotakos’ (aka Fotis Chrysanthopoulos).
Members would soon include more of the fighters and instigators of the revolution such as Odysseas Androutsos, Dimitris Plapoutas and the metropolitan bishop Germanos of Patras.
By the end of 1820 membership was in the thousands and had had spread to all areas and levels of Greek society from peasants to klefts, to archondes and aristocrats. It had become a strong unifying force for the Greeks in the struggle that was to come.
1820: Capodistria refuses again, and AA is found at Last
Anthimos Gazis was chosen to approach Capodistria again in 1820. Capodistria’s
second refusal was for two reasons: the timing was wrong and the Greek people were not sufficiently educated to be capable of self government.
(Πρέπι πρώτον να μοφώσωμεν, και έπειτα να κάμωμεν Ελλάδα» according to Filimon’s history of 1834).
Xanthos then turned to Prince Alexandros Ypsilantis, an aristocrat, a Phanariot, a major-general in the Russian army and, for a time, the Tsar’s aide de camp. He accepted in April of 1820.
His connections in the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia would surely help to foment a revolution there.That was the hope... He was 28 years old when he was given the task of processing and approving the general plan of the revolution. It involved an uprising of Serbs and Montenegrins, a revolt aided by local rebels in Wallachia, the stirring up of unrest in Constantinople (with the object of keeping the Ottoman fleet in port) and, lastly, an uprising in the Peloponnese.
On February 22, 1821, Alexandros with a small army and two of his brothers, Georgios and Nikolaos, entered Wallachia and the rebellion began – disastrously as it happened. He had hoped for Russian support that never came and for allies who did not materialize. Furthermore, he was so disappointed by his own troops that he called them a ‘cowardly rabble’. Captured, he languished in prison for 7 years before the Tsar insisted on his release.
Xanthos Flees to Ancona
In 1821, Xanthos was forced into a two year exile in Ancona to escape Ottoman wrath. But the die was cast because the revolt in the Peloponnese did succeed and, after that, there was no going back.
The Personal Aftermath for Xanthos
Skoufas had died in 1818 and Tsakalof would live until 1851, die in Moscow and choose not to write his memoirs, thereby leaving their legacy and any direct knowledge of the early years of the Filiki Etairia exclusively in the hands of Immanuel Xanthos.
Xanthos returned to the Peloponnese in 1823 to join Dimitrios, another Ipsilantis brother, in the fight for freedom there and remained until 1827 at which time Ipsilantis sent him to Russia on a personal mission.
At this point Xanthos’
story gets very murky. Although his long suffering wife, Sevasti, had brought
her children to Greece in the early 1820s they
apparently did not live together and after 1827, he lived in exile in a monastery in
Romania which was under Russian control during most of that time. It is not clear why.
In 1837, his wife was able to get a document from the Greek government acknowledging her husband’s contribution to the state, possibly it was a document needed to acquire governmental financial support. (7)
In 1834, historian and fellow fighter in the War of Independence, Ioannis Filimon took it upon himself to write a history of the Friendly Society that was not at all to Xanthos’ liking. In 1845, when he was back in Greece, he wrote his own memoir consisting of a short autobiography and letters addressed to him by members of the Society. Filimon disagreed with parts of the account, but did agree that Xanthos should be credited with bringing important papers to light: faint praise for the man who had provided the all important solid core that got the snowball rolling inexorably to freedom.
Xanthos had been given a paltry pension of 150 drachmas a month; it seemed as if Greece had moved on. Other, more dynamic (and wealthier) heroes were in power, basking in the glory gained by their participation in the revolutionary war. Xanthos appears to have become a ghost at the Banquet. He attempted with limited success to make a living by writing. One day in 1852, he dropped dead on the steps of the Greek parliament on Stadiou Street. He was buried at public expense in a modest Grave in section 4 of the First Cemetery.
Greek heroes seldom come to a happy end but they are compensated by being glorified as their stories develop and become part of the Greek cultural zeitgeist. Today Xanthos is right up there in the pantheon of the Heroes of the Greek Revolution. (8)
The Map
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Footnotes
(1) The founding members had no political ambition and, as a secret society, they could scarcely hope to become famous.
(2) Some sources question whether Capodistria was a mason, but he was certainly involved and he probably was.
(3) The Galatis story is kind of fascinating as were the accounts of his assassination. Apparently he lived for a time and asked his fellow Etaireia members why. One felt badly but the short answer was they were ordered to do it!
(4) There were not a lot of assassinations although, with a secret society like this one, who can be sure? There is a story that assassins were sent to Egypt by the Filiki Etairia to kill wealthy Greek Michael Tositsas who was working on behalf of the Ottomans but he talked them out of it. See: http://athensfirstcemeteryinenglish.blogspot.com/2016/09/michael-tositsas.html
5, The last part of the Great oath: Last of all, I swear by Thee, my sacred and suffering Country,— I swear by thy long-endured tortures,— I swear by the bitter tears which for so many centuries have been shed by thy unhappy children, by my own tears which I am pouring forth at this very moment,— I swear by the future liberty of my countrymen, that I consecrate myself wholly to thee; that hence forward thou shall be the cause and object of my thoughts, thy name the guide of my actions, and thy happiness the recompense of my labours.
(6) the Original Twelve Apostles: Xanthos listed their names and areas of operation: Georgakis Olimpios (ΓεωργάκηςΟλύμπιος) was based in Serbia. Dimitrios Vatikiotis (ΔημήτριοςΒατικιώτης) managed the branch of the Filiki Etaireia in Bulgaria. Konstantinos Pentedekas (ΚωνσταντίνοςΠεντεδέκας) was based in Romania. Christodoulos Louriotis oversaw the affairs of the Etaireia in Italy. Anagnostaras was responsible for the Saronic islands. Ilias Chrisospathis was the leader of the branch in Messenia. Farmakis oversaw the activities of the Etaireia in northern Greece, specifically Macedonia and Thrace. Asimakis Krokidas (ΑσημάκηςΚροκίδας) was responsible for the branch of Epiros. Antonios Pelopidas (ΑντώνιοςΠελοπίδας) managed the affairs of the Etaireia in the Peloponnese. Dimitrios Ipatros (ΔημήτριοςΎπατρος) was assigned to oversee the affairs of the Etaireia in Egypt. Gavriil Katakazis (ΓαβριήλΚατακάζης) oversaw the management of the Southern Russian branch. Finally, Kiriakos Kamarinos (Κυριάκος Καμαρηνός) oversaw the area of Mani, in the Peloponnese. (He would be murdered by the Etaireia too)
(7) This letter can be found on page 9 of the Kathimerini booklet on Xanthos.
(8) It would be hard to find any Greek freedom fighter who did not claim membership in the Filiki Etaireia once the war was won.
Sources
I found https://www.grandlodge.gr/the-history-of-the-grand-lodge-of-greece-weg-49592.html a good introduction to Greek Freemasonry.
Bard Study of 2017: Filiki Etaireia: The rise of a secret society in the making of the Greek revolution Greek revolution Nicholas Michael Rimikis . See https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=senproj_s2017
1821 a booklet published on 2020 by Kathimerini, edited and written by Maria Papanastasiou.
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