Germanos of Patras
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Germanos (George Gotzias, known as Palaion Patron Germanos 1771-1826) was an Orthodox Metropolitan of Patras, who, according to an unfounded tradition, on March 25, 1821, blessed a Greek flag at the Monastery of Agia Lavra and proclaimed the national uprising. Greece declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence. Before his consecration as Metropolitan of Patras by Patriarch Gregory V he had served as a priest and Protosyngellus in Smyrna. He died in 1826 at Messolonghi.
Germanos was born in Dimitsana, northwestern Arcadia, Peloponnese.
