Writer Alexandros Papadiamantis lived in Athens for a big part of his life, under great poverty conditions. He used to live in rented rooms inside the yard, where other families were being housed too. His residence conditions were so bad, that one night he almost got killed when an old house's roof at 18 Aristofanous Street collapsed because of the rain.

As he was unable to pay the rent and with his health being in a bad condition, in the beginnings of 1880 he found resort in the temple of Saints Anargyroi at Psyrri of Athens, where his friend monk Nephon used to work as a sexton. Nephon offered him accommodation in the room where he himself was living, which was in the church's precinct.
Papadiamantis lived for several years in that dark room that somehow seemed to a burrow. Even though he and Nephon were extremely frugal, they must have been suffering a lot because of the humidity and the lack of space.

He didn't even have a piece of paper to write on and he used to write on some paper bags given to him by a grocer from Tripolis, Arcadia, named Kahrimanis, who owned a store at Psyrri, a few meters from the church of Saints Anargyroi. Papadiamantis used to cut the paper bags into rectangles and made pieces of paper out of them, where he used to write his stories.
For seven whole years he used to go and eat at Kahrimanis's tavern, whom he praised very often, as if he was some special personality. He saw him as a man of God because he gave him paper to write. Who knows how many of his works would now be in obscurity without the presence of that blessed tavern owner.

The aforementioned and many more incidents of Papadiamandis's life were recited to us by, the chaplain of Saints Anargyroi church. We kept visiting the temple very often in order to light a candle and listen to the stories about the humble writer.
The last time we went to the temple, he wasn't there, because he had been very sick. In 2018 this modest and kind priest passed away.Almost nothing has changed in the church of Saints Anargyroi, since Papadiamantis used to live there. Even the psalter from where he used to chant remains the same. The tavern of Kahrimanis was working until 1940. 
The traces of Papadiamandis are disappearing within the passage of time, but his work and his example remains eternal. He was the humble giant of literature, a man of low self-esteem, who glorified his country but was never rewarded by it.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com