In March 1834, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece issued a circular to all metropolitans and bishops, acknowledging the value of keeping records of births, marriages and deaths - records which were "for a multitude of reasons, necessary in every orderly domain"^[1]. According to the circular, every parish ought to keep a bound volume, numbered and stamped by the Bishop, in which to record birth, baptisms, marriages and deaths. This practice, of parishes maintaining records of vital events, continued throughout the 19th century and was upheld not just by various Holy Synod circulars, but also by circulars issued by the Ministry of Interior, requesting the support of the Church in gathering, through the various parishes, vital statistics needed by the government^[2].

The archive of the Archbishopric of Athens includes marriage licences it has issued (the archive consists of loose documents contained in folders in the building’s basement) as well as volumes bearing the title ‘Πρωτόκολλον Συνοικεσιών’ (‘Marriage Protocols’), which contain records of marriages performed in the Archbishopric’s jurisdiction, including the details of those wed and the names of the ‘guarantors’ (groomsmen). This archive dates from 1848.

1. Birth and Baptism Registers of the parishes of Z. Pigi (1912-1933) and Aghia Eirini (1835-1944)
2. Archbishopric of Athens, ‘Πρωτόκολλον Συνοικεσιών’ (Marriage Protocols) (1848-1923)

 

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^[1] Originally: “βιβλίων τόσον αναγκαίων διά πολλούς λόγους εις εκάστην καλώς διατεταγμένην επικράτειαν”, p. 511 in: Giannopoulos, S. (Archimandrite) (1901), Συλλογή των Εγκυκλίων της Ιεράς Συνόδου της Εκκλησίας της Ελλάδος από του 1833 Μέχρι Σήμερον, Athens: Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece (reprint).
^[2] Ibid., p. 516.