Constantine's Mytilene baptismal certificate — Parish of Άγιος Θεράπων refugee settlement (1923)

A baptism recorded seven years after the birth, in a refugee parish on an island, because the original parish that should have recorded the event no longer existed.

This is the primary Greek-side civil document of Constantine’s life — and the keystone of the family’s Greek-citizenship case.

A combined Δήλωσις Γεννήσεως, Βαπτίσεως (Declaration of Birth and Baptism) certificate issued by the Parish of Άγιος Θεράπων in Mytilene — the Greek Orthodox parish of the Asia Minor refugee settlement on Lesvos. Issued by Οικ. Παπαθεόδωρος (priest), with Εμμανουήλ Κ. Χ. Γεωργίου named as the godparent (νουνός) at baptism.

What the certificate records

• Child’s full name: Κωνσταντίνος Γιαννόπουλος (Constantine Yannopoulos)
• Born: June 15, 1916 in Μυτιλήνη (Mytilene)
• Baptized: November 23, 1923 at the Parish of Άγιος Θεράπων, Mytilene
• Father: Λάζαρος Γιαννόπουλος, ιατρός (Lazaros Yannopoulos, physician), residence Σόμα Μ. Ασίας (Soma of Asia Minor)
• Mother: Ευτυχία Α. Καραμητρού (Eftyhia A. Karamitrou) — independent confirmation of her Karamitrou maiden name plus a middle initial “Α.” (Alpha, suggesting a patronymic starting with A — possibly Αχιλλέως / Achilleos, given the 1928 Sofianos letter names “the inheritors of Achilles Karamitros” as Eftyhia’s likely brother’s heirs)
• Mother’s birthplace: Πέργαμος (Pergamon / Bergama) — confirms the Pergamene connection to the Athens Pergamene Association documents cataloged elsewhere
• Godparent: Εμμανουήλ Κ. Χ. Γεωργίου (Emmanuel K. Ch. Georgiou)

The 7-year birth-to-baptism gap

Constantine was born June 15, 1916 in Mytilene but not baptized until November 23, 1923 — a 7-year delay unusual for Greek Orthodox practice, where infant baptism is the norm. The most plausible explanation: the family lived in Soma, Asia Minor between 1916 and 1922, so Constantine was likely baptized in Soma in infancy but the Soma records were destroyed in the 1922 catastrophe. The 1923 Mytilene certificate is a refugee-era re-registration of an earlier original baptism — the priest-signed Greek civil document the family could obtain after losing the originals.

This pattern matches Lazaros’s CV note that three of his pre-medical diplomas were marked “has been burned” — destroyed in 1922 — and corresponds to the broader phenomenon of Asia Minor Greek refugees re-establishing their civil records in Greek municipalities after the catastrophe.

Why this document is the keystone of the Greek-citizenship case

For the active Greek-citizenship filing, this 1923 baptismal certificate is the document on which everything depends:

1. It establishes Constantine was born on Greek-administered soil (Mytilene, 1916 — Greek state since 1912 under the 1913 Treaty of London ratifying the First Balkan War).
2. It establishes the parents as a Greek family of Soma with priest-signed Greek Orthodox sacramental record — primary-source evidence of Greek civil identity.
3. It is the predicate document for Constantine’s entry in the Mytilene Μητρώο Αρρένων (male registry) at folio 35 — see the 1957 Δημαρχείον re-issuance.
4. It anchors Peter’s jus-sanguinis chain at the source: Peter was born October 14, 1943 in NYC to a Greek-citizen father whose Greek civil identity is documented in this certificate.

Birth-date hierarchy

The family record carries three slightly different birth dates for Constantine:

The June 15 date stands as the primary-source Greek civil-record date. The June 21 drift to the US system is undocumented but consistent throughout American records — possibly a transposition error at first US registration that propagated.