Emmanuel Xanthos

Emmanuel Xanthos from Patmos: Emmanuel Xanthos was one of the three founders of Filiki Eteria (meaning Society of Friends), a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule and create a New Greek state. Xanthos was born in 1772 on the island of Patmos and graduated from the Ecclesiastical School of Patmos. He traveled first to Trieste and later to Russia, where he met Athanasios Tsakalof and Nikolaos Skoufas. These three traders founded Filiki Eteria in 1814 in Odessa. In 1821, the members of Filiki Eteria launched the Greek War of Revolution.

Xanthos spent the first years of the war (1821-1826) in Peloponnese but later moved to Wallachia, present Romania, where he stayed until 1837. This year marks his return to Greece, that had now become an independent state. He was appointed to a minor administrative post in Hydra but was shortly dismissed. In 1845, he published his memoirs which constitute a precious source of information about the Greek revolutionary war. He spent the rest of his life in poverty and died in Athens in 1852.