DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0369
338 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
To work it a large force of Greek laborers was nec-
essary. So there had grown up on the estate two
little villages, St. Jean and St. Theodore, with forty-
five families housed in stone cottages, and a small
Greek church whose priest was also teacher. Many
of these families had been reared on the place and
looked to Monsieur Mimont as their friend and pro-
tector as well as employer. To them the death of
their venerable patron was a personal bereavement.
It was therefore arranged to have one service in the
death-chamber in the homestead for the family and
near friends, and one at the grave to which all might
come.
I have held funeral services under circumstances
both peculiar and tragic, but this one lay far out of
the range of all previous experience. The sons had
been trained to English from infancy, but were the
only ones present who understood that tongue. The
housekeeper, the intendant and some of the village
officials understood French. The priest and his flock
knew only Greek. The situation was certainly pecu-
liar: the funeral of a French Protestant in a Greek
community, on Greek soil, conducted by an American.
I went to the service with a French Bible, an English
Bible, and the New Testament in the old Greek.
The service in the upper room was simple. The
two brothers,— the only survivors in the family,—the
attaclit! of the French Legation in brilliant uniform,
the gendarme also in full uniform, the village priest,
the faithful maid, the mayor of Xerochori and a few
others were in the chamber. A selection from the
Psalms in English was followed by a selection from the
New Testament in French, and a prayer in English.
To work it a large force of Greek laborers was nec-
essary. So there had grown up on the estate two
little villages, St. Jean and St. Theodore, with forty-
five families housed in stone cottages, and a small
Greek church whose priest was also teacher. Many
of these families had been reared on the place and
looked to Monsieur Mimont as their friend and pro-
tector as well as employer. To them the death of
their venerable patron was a personal bereavement.
It was therefore arranged to have one service in the
death-chamber in the homestead for the family and
near friends, and one at the grave to which all might
come.
I have held funeral services under circumstances
both peculiar and tragic, but this one lay far out of
the range of all previous experience. The sons had
been trained to English from infancy, but were the
only ones present who understood that tongue. The
housekeeper, the intendant and some of the village
officials understood French. The priest and his flock
knew only Greek. The situation was certainly pecu-
liar: the funeral of a French Protestant in a Greek
community, on Greek soil, conducted by an American.
I went to the service with a French Bible, an English
Bible, and the New Testament in the old Greek.
The service in the upper room was simple. The
two brothers,— the only survivors in the family,—the
attaclit! of the French Legation in brilliant uniform,
the gendarme also in full uniform, the village priest,
the faithful maid, the mayor of Xerochori and a few
others were in the chamber. A selection from the
Psalms in English was followed by a selection from the
New Testament in French, and a prayer in English.