Alexandros Papadiamantis
1851-1911 19th century
Praising God in the language of one's own village, without changing register for the printed page.
Who was Alexandros Papadiamantis?
The son of a priest on the island of Skiathos, he lived in Athens on translation work paid by the line, in an unheated room, and sang in the evening in the choir of a small neighbourhood church. His stories give the whole foreground to the people of his island: widows, shepherds, sacristans, drunkards, drowned children. He went home to Skiathos and died there at fifty-nine, having never left poverty behind.
In their own words
For my part, as long as I live and breathe and am in my right mind, I shall not cease to praise my Christ with adoration, to describe nature with love, and to paint genuine Greek customs with tenderness.