KYTHERA: THE ECCLESIASTICAL SITUATION AND THE PARISH CLERGY (c. 1700-1864)

n this book, the author investigates the development of the structures of the ecclesiastical establishment on Kythera in the period of approximately 1700-1864. The role of the Church is underlined, with a particular focus on the position of the parish clergy within the wider social context of this period, identifying it as one of the main factors of social development. It is ascertained that the parish clergy was informally, but actively, incorporated into the institutions of local administration. Moreover, it can also be observed that the proestos and the other authorities of local administration operated in a spirit of solidarity, coexisting with the parish clergy, on social and political Issues. This cooperation was constituted through and evolved primarily within the rules of popular customary law as well as within the institutions, which the local Orthodox Church established for its community.
The social and national activity of the leadership of the local Church and the parish clergy is traced through all the phases of the development of the administrative mechanisms and institutions, within the conditions created by the political regime of the Western European Powers (1207-c. 1864). The study, within the context produced by these factors and the adverse living conditions of the population, identifies and highlights the gradual development of a dynamic on the part of the local social forces. This resulted in the formation of an inherent dynamism within the society, which was constituted within the framework of a creative coexistence and collaboration between the leadership of the local Church and the parish clergy and with the local political self-administration: the mutual support of the inhabitants in a spirit of solidarity in order to overcome the deadlocks created by foreign rule and other adverse factors; social, national, political and religious resistances; the promotion of the education of the population and the preservation of its traditions; and an active participation in the efforts for national independence. (From the publisher)