Theophilos Kairis (Θεόφιλος Καΐρης): The Creator and Initiator of Theosebism in Greece

E. THEODOSSIOU, TH. GRAMMENOS AND V. N. MANIMANIS  (Department of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, School of Physics, University of Athens, Greece).

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ABSTRACT

The views of the Enlightenment in European countries are in general well known, while the attempts to introduce the Enlightenment to countries in the periphery of Europe, like Greece, are not known in the same degree. How did the scientific revolution migrate to the Greek-speaking regions occupied by the Ottoman Empire? How did the Greeks accept the truly revolutionary ideas of the French Revolution and liberalism? What were the reactions of the conservative Greek Orthodox Church and who sacrificed their lives in the cause of their ideas? Theophilos Kairis (1784–1853), a scholar, philosopher, and priest, was the tragic victim of clerical bigotry.
The creator of Theosebism in Greece, Kairis suffered the tragic end reserved by fate for those who, being pioneers, tried to introduce to Greece the liberal ideas of Western Europe and the Enlightenment.
INTRODUCTION
Theophilos Kairis, actually baptized Thomas, was born on 19 October 1784 on the island of Andros, a new member of an old island family. At the age of eight, he started his formal studies at the Virgin Mary of the Orphans School, known as Oeconomou’s School, at Kydonies (Aivali) in Asia Minor, where his uncle, Sofronios Kampanakis, served as a parish priest. According to the writer D. P. Paschalis,2 who has studied Kairis’s work, the latter completed his studies at the schools of Patmos and Chios,
islands near the coast of Asia Minor, where the scholars Athanassios Parios and
Dorotheos Proios taught.
In 1800, Kairis returned to Kydonies to complete his studies at the Higher School of the city (Kydonies Academy of Philosophy). Oeconomou’s School, after his death in 1792, was reformed and finally housed in a new building. Having the features of a
higher school, it was renamed an academy including 70 classrooms, an auditorium, a library, etc. In this academy, Kairis, as a student of the famous scholar Veniamin Lesvios (1762–1824) was deeply influenced by Lesvios’s modern views on natural sciences.3
Indeed, under the directorship of Veniamin Lesvios (1802–12), the Academy of Kydonies had become one of the best schools for science. At the age of 18, Theophilos Kairis became a monk, since every apt student could have access to further education only by turning to the Orthodox Church. This was due to the fact that the Ottoman…
The European Legacy, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 783–797, 2004

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