Calendar Reform

His Holiness Meletios Metataxis, Patriarch of Constantinople, has commended a movement for the adoption of the western Gregorian calendar for all civil purposes, and the kingdom of Greece has just instituted this notable reform, according to Greek papers from Constantinople, Alexandria and Athens. Strangely enough, Patriarch Meletios is willing that the Church remain behind the State in this matter, for he still recommends the Julian calendar for ecclesiastical purposes. (The All Russian Church Council has just adopted the Gregorian calendar of the west.) There is now a difference of 13 days between the two calendars. The Julian calendar, started under Julius Caesar, 46 B. C., is 11 minutes slow each year. It was used by all Christendom, however, until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII abolished it and substituted the Gregorian calendar, which we now use. Protestant countries were slow to adopt the calendar because of hatred for Rome, Sweden being the last to adopt it, in 1753.

Well-bearded Metataxis is one of the picturesque figures of the Levant. Jovial, simple in his fondness for a good story and careful in his selection of cigarettes, the Patriarch is continually confronted with politico-ecclesiastical difficulties which make his exalted position none too secure.

One result of the fall of King Constantine, and the return of Venizelos to Greece has apparently been to enhance the prestige of Patriarch Metataxis in that country.