Οι Ουνίτες στην Τουρκία και στην Ελλάδα

Abstract

A religious movement known under the name of «Uniates», i.e.: groups of
Greek Catholics holding Byzantine rite, started its activity in Istanbul as early
as the second half of the XIX century. At the same time Bulgarian Uniates
started their activity in Macedonia.
Towards the end of the second half of the XIX century, minor groups of
Greek Uniates started to consolidate their churches in Malkara (Tekirdag) and
Gallipoli. These small-sized religious communities consisted basically of a
number of families scattered all over the region.
Although running parallel, the two movements went through a quite different
development in their respective countries. As a matter of fact, whilethe
Bulgarian Uniates grew in importance as the number of their followers increased,
their Greek counterpart did not seem either to thrive or to exparid in
Istanbul.
During the period of the exchange of populations between Greece and
Turkey (1923), the majority of Istanbul’s community and the entire communities
of Malkara and Gallipoli chose to migrate to Greece with their clerics.
Over the past seventy years the community of Uniates still existing in Istanbul
has gradually become smaller and smaller, which made it unnecessary
for their parishes and worship establishments to be kept open. As a consequence,
since 1996 the few parishioners have started joining Latin Catholic
churches for religious ceremonies owing to the fact that the last Uniate priest
died in that year. Since then the community has been under the jurisdiction of
the Apostolic Vicar of Istanbul.