Emmanuel Xanthos

Emmanuel Xanthos was one of the three founders of Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends), a secret organization whose with the purpose of overthrowing Ottoman rule and establishing a New Greek state. He was born in 1772 on the island of Patmos. His father Nikolaos had been a member of the Russian army while his mother Doukena came from a very prosperous family. Xanthos studied at the Ecclesiastical School of Patmos but had to abandon his education to start working.

Emmanuel Xanthos joined the Greek merchant class in 1792, which offered him the opportunity to travel outside the Ottoman territory. He first traveled abroad when he was 20 years old, first to Trieste and later to Russia. During that time, he was greatly influenced by the writings of Rigas Feraios and Adamantios Korais, two prominent figures of the Greek Revolution. This was also when he met fellow traders Athanasios Tsakalov and Nikolaos Skoufas. Together, the three men founded Filiki Eteria in 1814 in Odessa.

In 1818 they moved to Constantinople to further their cause of Greek independence. Soon thereafter Skoufas fell ill and passed away, leaving Xanthos and Tsakalov as the two sole leaders of the organization. In 1821, the members of Filiki Eteria officially launched the Greek War of Revolution. Xanthos spent the first years of the war (1823-1827) in the Peloponnese, joining Dimitrios Ipsilantis in his fight for freedom. He was then sent to Russia by Ipsilantis on a personal mission, before later moving to Wallachia (modern-day Romania).

In 1837, Xanthos finally returned to Greece, which had now become an independent state. Upon returning to the country, 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.