History

Captain Matapas or Papachristos priest Christos of the monastery of Ossiani or fisherman of the lake of Giannitsa. A triune and resourceful leader, a brave and superhuman warrior, with multiform national action.

Nobody is in a position to describe with accuracy the national action of Captain Matapas, an action related to military operations as well as local investigations, which he conducted personally in many regions of the central Macedonia. The title “Kapetan Matapas” is a pseudonym of Michael Anagnostakos, second lieutenant of the artillery of Haria of the historical Tower Diros in Mani.

Captain Matapas leads his life certainly influenced by the history and the glorious tradition of Mani, his private country. He lived and he was marked by the year 1826, when the women of Mani confront the organized Egyptian army of Imbrahim pasha, and with sole weapons their sickles and swords they manage to defeat the Egyptians and throw them into the sea. Blazing with his feelings and not being able anymore to put up with the terrorism of foreign invaders and gangs of robbers on the Macedonian land, he requests insistently to go over there. His aim is to examine the situation closely and to take immediate action. At first (in 1905) the Greek Macedonian komitato – guerilla organization – of Thessaloniki sends him to central Macedonia where he manages to penetrate as a drover. The Macedonian Struggle is at its peak at the same period when enemy Bulgarian corps terrorize the Macedonian countryside with crimes and murders. In the form of a drover he crosses central Macedonia from side to side, examines the situation and sets up secret cells of national defense in various villages and where circumstances are permitting. Considering the armed action as the only solution, he requests and becomes the leader of the volunteer army (mainly men from Mani) under the title “Kapetan Matapas”. By his extraordinary action on the periphery of Lagadas, he forces the Turkish management to take extraordinary measures. Himself he transforms into a priest and with the pseudonym Papachristos he escapes into the monastery of Ossiani, where he continues his work until 1806, sometimes preaching the Evangelio – the Bible – and sometimes acting mysteriously with the gun under the cassock.

In 1906, from January until June, he undertakes second in command at the lake of Gianitsa and with the help of his comrades he builds huts-bases of operations and shelters for Greek volunteer soldiers.

The hardships however of the swamp combined with the psychological and physical fatigue have affected seriously his health while the illnesses of the swamp weaken himself and his men. He is forced to retire and to take charge of the volunteer corps of Olympus and Pierria Mountains, where for one year he crushes the robberies in the area and he dissolves the Rumanian propaganda.

During his four-year multiform stay in Macedonia, Captain Matapas, among other things, manages to annihilate the most famous robbers who terrorize the area and the monastery of Petra. In Verria with the intension to frighten a notorious Rumanian criminal he disguises into a fisherman. The incident happened as follows: Matapas-fisherman goes to the house of the Rumanian and offers him a big fish, in the belly of which was written: “I came alone so as to meet each other and I advise you to change path because the path you have chosen leads you towards me and until our next meeting”. When they opened the fish to scale it, they found the letter and the arrant Rumanian left Verria and never returned.

Because of his multiform action, Captain Matapas became a legend and the villagers of Macedonia portray his action by saying:

What is this Matapas
You find him everywhere you go
Sometimes he becomes a priest
Sometimes guerilla and fisherman

Having as his vision a free country and while temporarily suspended with honors, when the war between Greece and Bulgaria broke out he offered his services as a volunteer and with a company of scouts under his command he attacked at the battle of Lahanas, where he was killed gloriously fighting for his country while the enemy was being put to rout. On the location where he was killed a monument was erected to his honor. Captain Matapas name decorates many streets of Greek cities (Katerini – Pireos etc).