THE GENUINE ORTHODOX CHURCH

1924 The Orthodox world is divided in two because of the decesion of the Patriarch of Constantinople and various other Local Churches, to adopt the already condemned and Anathematised by the Church, new calendar (Gregorian calendar) of Pope Gregory XIII, which was not only an anticanonical act, but it would also be an Ecumenical "gesture" or an act of "good-will", on the part of the so called Orthodox, toward the Heretic west. The change of the calendar was important for the Ecumenical movement, because it would allow "Christians to celebrate Feast Days togeather as one".

1924 The Holy Community of Mt. Athos expresses its opposition to the change of the calendarby breaking communion with the New Calendarist innovators. Many such zealot communities are also established throughout Greece. These resisters call themselves the "Genuine Orthodox Christians". However, they are collectively known as the "Traditionalists" or "Old Calendarists", by the innovators.

1924 Metropolitan Chrysostom of Florina retires from his position in the Ecumenical Patriarchate in protest of the introduction of the new calendar. Metropolitan Germanos of Demetrias continues to serve according to the patristic Orthodox calendar until he is forced to adopt the new calendar on February 15, 1928.

1925 On September 14 (O.C.) during the Feast of the Exultation of the Precious Cross, the Cross appears in the heavens over the Church of Saint John the Theologian on Mount Hymettos, outside of Athens, where two thousand faithful had gathered to celebrate the Vigil. The police, who were sent by Archbishop Chrysostom of Athens to break up the service and arrest the priest, were converted.

1925 For the frst time, the invented theory that the New Calendarists were only "potentially" but not "actually" schismatic makes its appearance in the writings of Athanasios Danielidou, an Athonite monk. The community of Genuine Orthodox Christians publishes many booklets and articles condemning this theory. Among the books published are: "Distomos Romphaia" (Two-Edged Sword) and "Apostasias Elegchos" "Apostasy's Censure".

1926 On Holy and Great Thursday, 450 Hieromonks and monks on Mount Athos led by Fr. Arsenios Kotteas, sign "The Sacred League of Athonite Zealot Monks," a declaration for the defense of Orthodoxy against the new calendar.

1926 In the same year, the Sacred League publishes its Constitutional Charter under the heading, "The Anchor of Orthodoxy." This group which openly declares that the New Calendarists are fully schismatic in both "potentiality" and "actuality" also condemns the new theory of Athanasios Danielidou.

1926 The Holy Greek Orthodox Community of Genuine Orthodox Christians assembles at a clergy-laity council in Athens at which they support the teachings defined by the Athonite Fathers, that the New Calendarists of Greece are fully schismatic.

1927 On November 21, the local authorities move to arrest the priest of the Genuine Orthodox Church at Mandra of Megaris, in Attica. However, the parishioners form a human wall around their pastor, and in the ensuing scuffle a young married woman, Catherine Routis, is fatally wounded. She dies on November 28, the first martyr of the Genuine Orthodox Struggle in Greece.

1927 Many Zealot Athonite Hieromonks travel to Greece and abroad to help the traditionalists with their sacred struggle. Of these Zealot Athonites, the most prominent figures are: Archimandrite Matthew (Karpathakis), Hieromonk Arsenios (Kotteas), Hieromonk Eugene (Lemonis), Hieromonk Gerasimos (Agiodionysiotis), Hieromonk Parthenios (Skourlis), Hieromonk Artemios (Ouzounopoulos), Hieromonk Anthony (Koutsonikolas), Hieromonk Gideon (Papanikolaou), Hieromonk Nectarios (Katsaros), Hieromonk Artemios (Xenophontinos), and Hieromonk Akakios (Papas).

1928 The Metropolises and Dioceses of Southern Macedonia, Western Thrace, and various Greek islands are released from the jurisdiction of the New Calendarist Ecumenical Patriarchate, and are handed over to the jurisdiction of the New Calendarist State Church of Greece, by order of the Greek dictatorship government.

1935 On July 2, Archbishop Chrysostom Papadopoulos of the New Calendarist State Church of Greece convokes a meeting of his Synod in an effort to legitimize the adoption of the new calendar and to condemn all those who remain faithful to the traditional Church calendar. Of the forty-four bishops present, thirteen depart from the Synod meeting, twenty-seven refuse to endorse the decree, and only four sign (not a majority).