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Ποιος είδε τέτοια συννεφιά

<<Ποιος είδε τέτοια συννεφιά, ποιος είδε τέτοια αντάρα, που τούτ' το χρόνο πλάκωσαν Ανατολή και Δύση; τον Πάτριαρχη κρέμασαν, τον άγιο Γρηγορη, σαν να 'τανε κατάδικος στην εκκλησιάς την πόρτα.  Εκεί που ελειτούργαε κι ευλόγαε το γένος, πλακώνουν οι Γενίτσαροι και οι Οβρηοί αντάμα. >>

Λαικη  Μούσα.

 

Background to Poem:

During the uprising against the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century, the Turks offered a brutal resistance to the liberation of Greek speaking territories.  At this time as a result of an inability to quell the rebellion, the Turks killed thousands in Smyrna and Constantinople.  

To strike further fear into the heart of the Greeks the Patriarch Saint Gregory the 5th was hung and dragged on the streets of Constantinople.   The door which he was hung by for 3 days has been left closed for the last two hundred years by the Patriarchate out of respect to St. Gregory the 5th.  

The current Patriarchate is a scene of conflict between Orthodoxy and the Turkish government. Many members of the so called "progressive and tolerant" Turkish parliament looking for entry into Europe have demanded that the Patriarchate be closed.  They have gone as far as to say that the Turkish government should force themselves through the door of St. Gregory closing the nearly two thousand year old Patriarchate of Constantinople!  A great insult not only to the Greek people but to over 300 million Orthodox who see the Patriarch as their religious head.  If this ever occurred it would be tantamount to the closing of the Vatican for Catholic believers. Certainly a strong backlash would occur from the many surrounding Orthodox countries, as well as from the European Union.  The following is as much a traditional song as a poem to the event of the hanging of Saint. Gregory.