Privileges, Community organization, Foundation of orthodox churches

The Greeks that inhabit the large urban centres of the Italian peninsula are organized in independent Communities or Brotherhoods on the base of privileges which are conferred to them by the political authorities. The foundation of the Communities is linked to the erection of the Greek orthodox temples and their operation is ruled by the regulation which is voted usually many years after. The Colony and the Community do not coincide, at least not necessarily. The colony comprises all the Greeks living in the city of reception, permanently or temporarily. while the community includes only those who want to become members of the community or the Brotherhood. Thus, by the end of the 18th century, 25% of the Greeks of Trieste belong to the Brotherhood. The Brotherhoods which are composed of men over 18 years old, elect the persons in charge of the Community, those that will administer the financial affairs of the Community and provide for the maintenance of the temple and the appointment of a priest from the Levant, the care of poor Greeks, the foundation and operation of schools and the representation of the Greeks of the colony to other cities. Therefore, the Brotherhood actually serves the interests of the Greek foreigners. The Brotherhoods are supported financially by contributions and the levy of tax on the movable and immovable property of their members but also by legacies left by wealthy Greeks with no natural heirs.

In the mid-15th century the Spanish confer to the Greek military officials and to the soldiers that serve in the mercenary army, religious privileges and land.

In 1518 the Corinthian military Thomas Assanis- Palaeologos builds in the city of Neapolis the orthodox church of the apostles Peter and Paul and later obtains property rights on the temple. This temple will become the church of the Hellenic Community of Neapolis and will be re-erected four times until 1757. In 1561, a small number of refugee scholars will found the Brotherhood with the consent of the Spanish authorities and will vote its regulation. Based on this regulation, the Greeks vote the new one in 1593, according to which all orthodox habitants of the city constitute the assembly that elects the six membered executive body composed of 2 magistri and 4 members.

From the end of the 16th and until the mid-17th century as well as during the first half of the 18th century, the Brotherhood of Neapolis is agitated by a religious dispute between the supporters of the catholics or the unionists -heirs of the property rights of the founder of the orthodox temple, Thomas Assanes-Palaeologus-, and some also catholic supporters or unionists, priests of the temple, that claim for themselves the administration of the temple's considerable proceeds. Nevertheless, the Holy See maintains a tolerant attitude and repeatedly issues decisions in favour of the Brotherhood which is also supported by the political power. However, the local Catholic ecclesiastic authorities are hostile toward the orthodox Brotherhood, especially in the framework of the Counter-Reformation movement from the end of the 16th century onward.

In February 1764 the Brotherhood is reorganized on the basis of a new regulation. The Greeks of Neapolis enjoy religious freedom until approximately 1830, when the reactionary attitude of the Holy See, which is adopted by the Spanish authorities forces the Greeks of Neapolis to become unionists. They regain their religious freedom at the end of the 19th century after the intervention of the Greek government.

Already from the end of the 16th century the princes of Tuscany confer to the Greeks of Livorno many privileges in order to promote the commercial development of the city. In the years 1572-1573, the Great duke Cosimo I concedes to the orthodox Greeks the catholic church of Saint Jacob. In 1591, Ferdinand I appoints the Greek Ioanni Manoli Voltera as prince of Livorno while at the same time he also concedes to the Greeks 80 residences as well as land to build their own church. The works for its construction begin in 1601 with loans and considerable financial difficulties. The facade of the temple is completed in 1708.

In 1653 the Greeks unite in a Brotherhood. The Brotherhood appears to comprise the Slavic orthodox people of Livorno and the Syrian unionists, the so-called Melchites, as well. Between the unionists and the orthodox great disputes break out. In 1754, when Livorno was under the rule of Austria, the rupture is definitive and the orthodox obtain the permission from the prince of the city and the Latin archbishop of neighbouring Pisa to build an orthodox temple. The temple of the Holy Trinity (Agia Triada), which is inaugurated in 1760, is built with financial difficulties. Despite the relationship of the orthodox church of Livorno with the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the orthodox church must have been under the unofficial control of the catholic archbishop office of Pisa most likely did not belong to an orthodox ecclesiastic leader.

The Greek orthodox Brotherhood of the Holy Trinity is founded in 1775 on the approval of the local authorities. The Greeks of Livorno vote for the first time the regulation that will rule the Community up to 1873, when it will be revised. All members of the Brotherhood constitute the General Assembly from which derives the administrative body (composed of 4 trustees and 12 members).

The Greeks that settle in Trieste around the mid-18th century obtain very quickly religious and political privileges. Austria is interested in keeping experienced persons and people which are able to take over the trade with the Levant. Thus, in February 1751, the empress Maria Teresa issues a decree concerning the privileges of the so-called Greci of Trieste. In the years that will follow and on the basis of the decree of the Privileges, the Greeks will build with great financial difficulties the orthodox temple of Evangelismos and that of Saint Spyridon. They will also get organized in a self-administrated Brotherhood which will obtain a complete form only in 1772 on the voting of the first regulation which ruled the operation of the Brotherhood with no serious distinctions among the members of the Community.

It is not only the Greeks that are called Greci at that time but all the orthodox people in general, including the "Illyrians" (Serbs) of Trieste, which are also members of the Brotherhood and take part in its administration. In these years, the "Illyrians" have greater financial power than the Greeks who are more in number. The "Illyrians" demand first of all that a priest of their own be appointed in their orthodox church. The Greeks, which do not have the right to belong to a higher ecclesiastic leader in the Levant, are afraid of being subjected to the Metropolite of Karlowitz, the religious leader of the Serbs within the limits of the Hapsburg monarchy. The disputes between the two nations become more intense from 1770 and thereafter. The definitive rupture comes in 1782. In August of the same year the Austrian emperor Joseph II grants to the Greek the permission to build their own temple. Two years later, the works for the construction of the temple of the Holy Trinity and that of Saint Nikolaos begin; the first liturgy is celebrated in February 1787.

In 1784 the Greeks vote the "Preliminary Regulation", which define the operation regulation of the Community for the next years. Theses regulations distinguish for the first time the Greeks in four classes, depending on their contribution to the community treasury. The higher the class of the members the more rights they have on the administration of the Community. In 1786, the Greeks vote the new regulation, and actually finalize what the "Preliminary Regulations" defined. The new regulation remains in effect upto today with slight modifications. According to the new regulation all fellow members compose the general assembly which is the higher electorate which elects every two years the twelve member chamber of deputies (Italian: capitolo), that is the representative body of the Brotherhood. The chamber of deputies has general consultative competency in the administration of community matters and each year it transfers the executive power to 3 trustees whose work is supervised by two "syndics".

In comparison to the regulations of contemporary Greek communities over the world, the regulation of the Trieste Community that dates back to 1786 is better than others in structure, syntax and in providing for all community activities.

As for the community organization of the rest of the Greek colonies on the Italian peninsula we have little information. For example, we know that Ancona had an organized Greek community (the archive of which was destroyed during World War II) or that the people from Mani that lived in Tuscany were rudimentarily represented in the local authorities. It is certain that Greeks were forced sooner or later to become unionists or to convert to Roman Catholicism in Ancona, Rome, Corsica, the countryside of Tuscany, and in southern Italy and Sicily.

This could not have been different in Rome, the capital of the papal state and refuge for many unionist Byzantine scholars, among which the cardinal Vissarion will later come to Rome. It could not have been different for Ancona neither, -the port of the papal state from 1532 until 1796- although the Pope conceded to the Greeks of Ancona in 1524 a temple (the church of Santa Anna) and despite the fact that the Greeks of Ancona demanded in 1532 from the archbishop of Achreide to appoint a Metropolite for the Greeks of Italy. During the first half of the 16th century the conditions for the Greeks seem more favourable. In the second half the Catholic Church hold a more tough attitude towards the Greeks and it seems that the temple of Santa Anna was violently taken from the orthodox in 1584. However, the orthodox Greeks will take possession of the church for a small period under the rule of the French in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries.

In the framework of this policy the Catholic Church -with the Bishop of Sagona and the archbishop of Pisa as prime movers- proceeds with organized efforts to romanize the Mani people that arrive in Corsica, Tuscany and in the Terra di Otranto in the late 17th century, by sending people such as Georgios or Odorissios Pieris from Chios -who showed exceptional zeal in completing his mission- among unionist missionaries. Some Greeks become unionists and others are converted to Roman catholics. All or at least the majority of the remaining orthodox Greeks that arrive in southern Italy and Sicily in the 15th and 16th centuries are gradually romanized until the beginning of the 18th century, for the remaining priests that had accompanied the settlers to their new country have died or been assassinated. Some temples have been preserved upto today, as the deserted chapel of the "Virgin of Lephkania" in the village of Kalimera in southern Italy, where the habitants speak a Greek-Italian dialect upto today, or the church or Saint Panteleimonas in the neighbouring village Martiniano. Most of these temples were built in the Byzantine epoch, mainly from 800 onward and were found by the Greek migrants that had come to settle in these regions. The Greek style monasteries that exist upto today in southern Italy and Sicily are 265. These monasteries were at the peak of their flourishing between the 10th and 12th centuries.

The Mani people and the Greeks of southern Italy and Sicily were not under the rule of the Holy See, as the Greeks of Ancona and Rome. However, they were rural populations that lived isolated, in a hostile religious environment. On the contrary, the urban Greek populations lived in the cosmopolitan environment of the Italian cities and were constantly renewed by Greek migrants (Venetian or Ottoman subjects).

It seems that the Ioannina Knights showed respect towards the religious independence of the orthodox settlers on the small island of Malta where the Greek temple of Panagia Damaskini exists upto today.

Demographic trends

If we observe the number of the Greeks that lived in the Italian peninsula, we may consider it insignificant. Three years before the outbreak of the War of Greek Independence of 1821, 1075 Greeks live in Trieste, the largest Greek colony of Italy. The number of the Greeks raises continually from the time of their first settlement in Trieste, that is in the mid-18th century. By the end of the 16th century about 1000 Greeks live in Ancona, the 8% of the city's population. In the first period of their settlement, in the end of the 16th century, about 80 Greek families live in Livorno while in 1841, the state authorities report 57 Greek families. Therefore, the Greeks of Livorno must never have exceeded 400 persons, at least until the mid-19th century. In Neapolis, by the beginning of the 19th century there were no more than 250 Greeks. Most of them must lived in the rest of the kingdom, but this is only a suggestion based on the constant arrivals of groups of Greek and Albanian migrants in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries and not on specific information. The people from Mani settle in "Taranta", Terra di Otranto, in the Spring of 1675; they number about 340 persons. In the 1670's, 570 migrants from Mani arrive in Tuscany, and 730 in Corsica. In 1575, about 400 Greeks live in Malta.

These numbers may not impress us but they must be studied in relation to the economic power and the social status of the migrants in the regions of settlement.

Demographic data often indicate the economic and social importance of a colony, especially if one observes these numbers in the course of time. In Trieste, for which there is information, the number of Greeks raises as their economic strength increases. In 1765, 154 Greeks live in Trieste; twenty years later, in 1775, the Greek population raises to 245. By 1783 the number of Greeks increases to 396 and in the decade after the creation of a pure Greek Community (after the rupture with the "Illyrians"), the number of the Greeks is doubled. In 1792, 752 Greeks live in Trieste. During the following years, their number constantly raises, despite the fact that during the third French occupation of Trieste (from 1809 to 1814) many Greeks leave the city because of the economic crisis. As a result, the Greek population temporarily decreases.

The War of Greek Independence leads many refugees from the Greek region to migrate to Trieste and the other big Italian cities. Consequently, the Greek population raises impressively for the years that the refugees stay in Trieste. Two years after the outbreak of the War of Independence, 3200 Greeks live in Trieste! Such evidence may not prove the real number of the Greeks who live in the north Adriatic port yet it is a considerable number, for despite the fact that the Greek colony constituted only 3% of the total population of Trieste, still it was the biggest after the Jewish colony. The protestants, the Armenians and the "Illyrians" of Trieste were even less.(1)

The increase of the number of Greeks in Trieste is not attributed to natural reasons (e.g. births) but to the constant arrival of migrants. This must have been the reason of population increase for the other "big" Greek colonies of Livorno, Neapolis and Ancona in earlier years. However, the number of Greeks in Ancona constantly decreases during the 17th century. The Greeks abandon Ancona and migrate to other regions of Italy when they confront the papal oppression and when their religious rights are restricted. In the smallest Italian cities and the countryside, the number of Greeks constantly decreases as they are obliged to convert to Roman catholicism and become Italians. Some Greeks, such as the Mani people of Tuscany that settle in marshy land, die from diseases. The Mani people of Taranta and Corsica move from time to time from one city to another in order to conserve their religious rights or avoid the hostile intentions of the natives.

The scholars and the men of the armed forces of the 15th and 16th centuries, the merchants of the 16th and 17th centuries and the largest group of merchants of the 18th century are all men. The most Greeks in the Italian cities are men, particularly during the first years. Usually, women do not seek their fortune abroad and the men who migrate rarely take their family with them. In Trieste men were always more than women during the whole course of the Greek colony. In 1765, the number of men exceeds two times the number of women. Between 1765 and 1826 most Greek households of Trieste consist of men who live alone or with servants, friends, fellow-workers and relatives. Most men that arrive in Trieste between 1765 and 1775 were already professionals in their places of origin. They are active men of mature years, that is between 35 and 50 years old. Moreover, there is great population movement: many of these men , usually small merchants, stay in Trieste only for a few years in order to dispatch their business matters. Couples usually live on their own or with the children. Sometimes they live together with servants, employees, friends and other times with their old parents. In Livorno in 1841, most Greek households are composed of couples with children as well as close or distant relatives, friends, fellow workers and employees. (2) Different generations live in the same home. The cohabitation of the migrants facilitates their life and their adaptation to the new environment.

However, even in 1841 we find many bachelors among the Greeks of Livorno. In Trieste, as in Livorno, men get married and have children at a relatively advanced age (surely after 30 years old). It seems that at least the merchants devote time to ensure their entrepreneurial qualifications and to obtain professional experience before having a family. In Trieste, Livorno and Neapolis the Greeks marry mainly Greek women but there are also mixed marriages, usually for migrants of mature years.

Education

In the centuries we study a great number of Greeks from the Turkish ruled and Venetian ruled Greek region as well as Greeks of Italy are educated on the Italian peninsula. Many of them study during this period in renowned Italian universities, in which Byzantine scholars teach the Greek language and literature during the 15th and 16th centuries. From the end of the 16th century onward, many Greeks become students of the eminent Greek college of Saint Athanasius in Rome, a catholic educational institute where Greek is taught to mainly Greek students. From the first half of the 17th century, but mainly in the beginning of the 19th century, the Greek Brotherhood founded schools for the children of the Greeks which -at least those that came from wealthy families- obtained until that period elementary education at home, by home tutors.

The Byzantine scholars become carriers of the Greek education in Italy through teaching, literature and publishing activities which are linked to education. Vissarion (1403-1472), Roman catholic cardinal from 1439, during the second half of the 15th century and with the assistance of experienced, paid fellow workers -particularly Greek calligraphers- makes out an inestimable collection of ancient Greek and Byzantine manuscripts. At the same time Vissarion writes important theological and philosophical works. In the late 15th and the early 16th centuries Ianos Laskaris (1445-1534), offspring of a noble Constantinople family, obtains numerous Greek manuscripts from the East for the library of Lorenzo de Medici, teaches Greek in the University of Florence and publishes works of ancient Greek and Byzantine writers. In 1514 Ianos Laskaris is appointed as first director of the Greek College in Rome. Leon Allatios (1586-1669), graduate of the Greek College of Rome, publishes a great number of texts of the fathers in the course of the 17th century. Konstantinos Laskaris (1434-1501) publishes in 1476 in Milan his celebrated Greek grammar titled "Erotimata" which was the first pure Greek book to be published in the West. In Milan, as in Messina of Sicily, Laskaris teaches the ancient Greek and Byzantine language and literature. Dimitrios Chalkokondyles (1423-1511), of Athenian origin, teaches Greek in Padova, Florence and Milan during the second half of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th centuries. In Florence 1488 Dimitrios Chalkokondyles publishes the Homeric epics, the first grand work to be published in Greek. Byzantine scholars were professors of famous European humanists such as the great German humanist Reuchlin, a faithful student of Chalkokondyles in Florence and Milan, or the Dutch Erasmus, who was a student of the Cretan scholar Marcus Musurus in Padova and Venice. Byzantine scholars had Greek students also. Moreover, new scholars often begin their career on the side of acknowledged scholars.

The university of Padova, which belongs to Venice is the one that attracts the majority of the Greeks, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries when the two Greek colleges of Palaeokappa and Kotounianou were founded. In Padova the Greeks are organized in the so-called Nazione Oltramarini ("Overseas Nation") which is composed not exclusively of Greeks but of Illyrians, Dalmatians and Sicilians also. During the period 1634-1782, 899 Greeks study in Padova. More than a third have come from the Venetian ruled Ionian islands. Greek professors teach in the university of Padova in the 18th century; among them we find Stelios Mastrakas from Corfu, professor of the Law School, and the Cephallonian Angelos Delladetsimas, professor of the Medical-Philosophical School. The university of Pisa also attracts Greek students. In the second half of the 18th century the Greek Brotherhood of Livorno offers scholarships to Greek students that come from schools of the Ottoman territory (Schools of Chios, Ioannina, Athens) and to Greeks from the Morea and Smyrna, to study in Pisa and Florence.

However, there is an Italian educational institute that is destined mainly for Greek students. This is the papal Greek College of Saint Athanasius in Rome (Collegio Greco), which is founded in 1575 by the Pope Gregory XIII and aims at the dissemination of the latin doctrine to the Greek orthodox. Before the foundation of the Collegio Greco, from 1514 to 1521, there was a Greek high school in Rome, in which a considerable number of Greek students had been educated and renowned Greek scholars had taught. This school had been founded by the philhellene pope Leo I and its character was exclusively humanistic. On the contrary, the College of Saint Athanasius was founded during the period of triumph of the Counter-Reformation spirit while the subsequent missionary zeal of the Roman catholic church was fervent. The official declaration of the institute's opening was in January 1557. The main objective of the institute was the romanization of the orthodox students who would promulgate the latin doctrine when they returned to Greece. The Greeks that came to study in the College in the first years of its operation seemed to ignore this intention. Nevertheless, around 1650 the real objectives of the institute were revealed and the number of Greek students decreased.

At all events, the College offered Greeks classic education of high quality. Apart from Theology and the introduction to the doctrines of the Catholic Church, which was done in Greek, the students were taught ancient Greek, Latin, Dialectics and Philosophy. The overwhelming majority of the students were Greek and children of eminent families as the College demanded. Students had to be under 14 years old for the beginning of their studies in the College. From 1576 until 1700, 439 Greeks out of 690 students graduate from the College, that is 63-62%. About 8% of the rest of the students of the College are Greek-Albanian, which means that we cannot be sure whether they are Greek or Albanian, while approximately 3% are Greeks of Italy. Most Greeks come from Crete, the Ionian isles, Chios and Cyprus, that is percentages that vary from 11, that is 61% for the Cypriotes, to 19, 13% for the Cretans. The College has also students from the Cyclades, the Peloponnese, Constantinople, Athens, Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus, Asia Minor and the Dodecanese.

After their graduation from the College some continue their studies in Italian universities. Others begin teaching in Greece, Italy and generally in Europe while there are graduates that choose a diplomatic or ecclesiastic career. In general, we can say that the College did not achieve its goals since only 32 of its students became fanatic supporters of the unionist idea. Furthermore, only 46 out of 113 students who followed an ecclesiastic career adopted the latin doctrine. The unionist scholar Leon Allatios and the renewer of the philosophic thought Theophilos Korydaleus are two of the eminent graduates of the College of the first half of the 17th century.

In the Greek colonies, the Brotherhoods found and support financially Greek schools in order to ensure the elementary education for the children of the Greeks and preserve the Greek language There is evidence for the existence of a school in the Greek colony of Ancona in 1622. This school accepts children of poor families also. The arrival of refugees in Ancona during the years of the Greek War of Independence of 1821 as well as the initiatives of Kapodistrias will lead to the expansion of the school and its better organization. In 1827 the school has about 30 students who are taught Greek, Arithmetic, Italian and Calligraphy.

In Trieste there is evidence on the foundation of a Greek school since 1801, but the idea along with the encouragement of the local authorities had already started to mature in the Community long before. The school is founded and maintained by donations of wealthy Greeks. By 1814 the school is divided in two "schools" which have different education levels. In 1815 it is divided in three "schools" and is better organized. The final and complete text of the school's regulation is voted in 1823 and approved by the local authorities.

Until approximately 1820 (but mainly from 1815 onward) the school is under the strong influence of wealthy Greeks, supporters of the Enlightenment and Korais, such as Iakovos Rotas and Prokopios Kartsiotes. Teachers strongly influenced by the teaching of the Enlightenment and Korais, such as Konstantinos Asopios and Christophoros Philitas are invited from Greece to come to Italy. In the 1820's the school is under the influence of anti-Koraic and new conservative groups.

The teaching of the Greek language is the principle objective of the Greek school of Trieste. The students -most of them future merchants- are taught Arithmetic, Commercial Correspondence, Calligraphy, Geography, History and Physical History. The children are indoctrinated with the orthodox dogma while the teaching of the German and Italian language aims at their harmonic integration in the local society. Of course not all the children of the Greeks go to school. First of all girls to not attend classes. Despite the Austrian marriages the Community showed interest in the education of the girls in 1828, when it founded a girls' school. In addition, not all Greeks send their sons to school from the first moment of its foundation. Many of them prefer Greek or Italian home tutors. In 1802, the Greek school has 55 students and 99 in 1820. In 1823 the students' number reaches 218 but this is due to the arrival of refugees, including a great number of orphans from different parts of the Greek region. 

The school of Livorno is founded in 1806 and is named "Hellenomouseion". Nevertheless, it seems that a rudimentary school existed since 1775 and that the Brotherhood arranged for teachers to come from the Greek region to teach in Livorno. In the years of the schools operation the Brotherhood invited teachers from the Greek region. One of them was the priest-monk and eminent scholar Gregorios Paliourites from Epirus. In 1822 the Greek school of Livorno numbered 42 students who were divided in 3 classes. The education offered was mainly theoretical. The Greek language appeared to be the principle teaching objective of the Livorno school also.

We do not know if schools were founded in the other Greek colonies. It seems logical for the great colony of Neapolis but the only information we find in the Bibliography is that the Greek language, ancient and modern, was taught in various schools of the city by eminent scholars. In the small settlement of Bibbona in Tuscany between 1675 and 1678, Oderisius Pieris, delegate of the Holy See, teaches the small children of the settlers Greek and Italian in an effort to convert the orthodox settlers to Catholisism. In 1676 this rudimentary school numbers 12 Greek and 3 Italian students. Should we suggest that such rudimentary "schools" operated in southern Italy, Sicily and Corsica? Moreover, in Corsica there is evidence of a school since 1881 in which the Greek language was taught.

Charity

Not all Greeks of Italy were wealthy despite the fact that many of them made profit out of trade, especially from the end of the 18th century onward. Among them are many poor people, such as ruined merchants (particularly in times of economic crisis), poor elderly or ill persons, poor women that live on their own and -mainly during the years of the War of Greek Independence followed by the arrival of refugees from the Greek region- poor widows and orphans. The Brotherhoods provide for the financial support and free hospitalization of the poor Greeks by developing intense social activity.

In Trieste the regulation of the Community defines the charity duties of its members. The regulation of 1786 assign the care of the poor to the trustees of the Community. The Community institutes regular weekly or monthly contributions for the destitute, it collects church money and distributes it to the needy (particularly in Christmas and Easter), pays the rent of many Greeks on a regular basis, finds job positions for the unemployed, provides for the free hospitalization of the ill persons and for the burial of the destitute.

The first Greek-Illyrian Community provides home to the needy migrants and ill people in a poor-house-hospital until 1778. In 1778 the pure Greek Community maintains its own hospital for the hospitalization of poor ill persons. The operation of this institute is controlled from 1790 onward by two supervisors. From 1793 to 1799, the hospital is lodged in the first floor of a community house and has ten beds. In 1799 the Community erects a building to lodge its hospital but financial problems constitute an obstacle for the use of the building as a hospital. Nevertheless, the Community continues to support the medical care and hospitalization of its poor.

The Community has charity-social activities beyond the colony. During the first half of the 19th century the Community supports the Greek seamen who become victims of shipwrecks and piracies, particularly in the years of the Napoleonic Wars. The Community supports financially the refugees from the Greek region for their repatriation spending over than 3000 florins from 1821 to 1823, thus aggravating its bad financial state. In addition, the Community supports -even a little- the schools and other institutes in the Levant.

In Livorno the Community takes care of its poor ill persons in its own hospital from 1796 onward. In the beginning of the 19th century the building of the community hospital is demolished and the Brotherhood provides for free room for the treatment of poor Greeks in the hospital of Livorno (Saint Antonio hospital) with the support of annual grants. At the same time the Community gives money to poor Greeks on their demand.

What is more, the wealthy Greeks of Livorno develop intense charity-social activity beyond the Community with the participation of charity organizations.

In Neapolis, where the first regulation is voted already from 1561, the charity programs of the Greek Community begin at the end of the 16th and in the beginning of the 17th centuries. However, by 1650 the Community has been involved in the dispute between the orthodox unionists and is not in the position to develop substantial charity activity. As for the Greek Community of Neapolis, we also know that it offered shelter to the homeless and to Greek visitors in a specific building, at least from the 17th century onward. In addition wealthy Greeks donate large amounts of money to the Brotherhood in order to support the poor members of the colony.