Athanasios Diakos: the deacon who chose death over denying Christ

Athanasios Diakos (1788-1821), born Athanasios Massavetas, entered monastic life young at the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Artotina. Around the age of seventeen he was ordained a deacon of the Orthodox Church, and from that rank he took the name Diakos, meaning deacon. He later left monastic life and took up arms against Ottoman rule, becoming one of the leading figures of the Greek War of Independence.

At the Battle of Alamana on 22 April 1821, Diakos and his fellow Greek fighters faced a far larger Ottoman force commanded by Omer Vrioni and Kose Mehmet. As the Greek forces retreated, Diakos refused to flee. According to tradition, he kept fighting with just 48 men until his sword broke and he was captured, gravely wounded. Impressed by his courage, Omer Vrioni reportedly offered him a position of command in the Ottoman army if he renounced Christianity and embraced Islam.

Diakos refused, answering with the words that remain well known in Greek history: 'I was born a Greek, and I shall die a Greek.' On 24 April 1821 he was executed by impalement in Lamia. A man who had served as a deacon of the Orthodox Church chose death rather than renounce his Christian faith. His sacrifice became a symbol of courage, conviction and the struggle for Greek independence, remembered under the cry 'Freedom or death.'