In his eulogy for Regional Commander Archon Inspector John V. Kassimatis, Archon Depoutatos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, at St. Paul Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Hempstead, New York on Friday, June 19, 2026, Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis, National Commander of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, stated: “To understand Archon John Kassimatis, you need only understand these two words,” diakonia (service) and martyria (witness), “because he spent his whole life living them, and at the end, he gave everything he had to both.”
Dr. Limberakis observed that “in our Church, diakonia is not a task or service you simply perform; it is a way you exist in the world. It is the willingness to put another’s need before your own. And Archon John embodied that virtue to the fullest.” He explained how Archon Kassimatis exemplified this on September 11, 2001, when “he worked amid the dust and the ruin to save lives, to carry out the wounded and the lost. That is diakonia in its purest form — service to country, service to humankind, with no thought of the ultimate cost to himself.”
“In the language of our Ecclesia,” Dr. Limberakis pointed out, “the word for witness and the word for martyr are one and the same. To bear witness is to testify to what you believe not merely with your lips, but with your life.” He explained “Archon John bore that witness.” He saved countless lives on September 11, but he “contracted one of the grave illnesses born of Ground Zero, and he carried it the way he carried everything — with dignity and with profound courage.”
“In Archon John,” Dr. Limberakis concluded, diakonia and martyria “were never two separate virtues — they were the single essence of his heroic life who made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Read the entirety of Dr. Limberakis eulogy here.
