At the beginning of the EOKA struggle in 1955, the then 14-year-old Chrysostomos (Herodotus was his worldly name) was a trainee monk at the Monastery of Agios Neophytos in Paphos. There he met several fighters who were active in the district of Pafos, some of whom he supported and helped in their fighting action.
"I praise God that I found myself in the Monastery and experienced the struggle of EOKA in all its magnitude. I could see the fighters there, how excited they were."
As mentioned in a documentary by Stella Michael that aired in the summer of 2022 on the state channel, the monks of Agios Neophytos hosted militants in a hideout and helped meet their needs. Their feeding was undertaken by children, including the then cadet monk and later Archbishop Chrysostomos II, with his brother Dimitris, who were arrested and interrogated by the English when they learned about the hiding place and the feeding mechanism of the fighters.
In fact, his brother was severely beaten by the investigators.
Meeting Pallikaridis
Among other fighters that Chrysostomos met as a young apprentice monk at the Monastery of Agios Neophytos was Evagoras Pallikaridis.
Chrysostomos himself remembered the also young Pallikaridis as a fighter immersed in his thoughts and his poetic estrus.
"I also met Pallikaridis. Who, of course, was more of a poet... And because he immersed himself in himself and wrote continuously, I told them:
-Hey don't take him with you and they will kill him.
And they told me,
-No, don't look at him like that... He's the only one who when we go into an ambush, he won't go and hide behind any rock or carob tree. He stands and if he doesn't finish the machine gun doesn't stop.
-Does he have a heart like that?
-Indeed, he is the only one who doesn't go to hide... He has the fighter's toupee and don't look at him like that... Now he is immersed in his thoughts because he writes... He writes poems. A good poet but also a good fighter."
Source: Today