Mr. Speaker, we were deeply saddened on Saturday to learn about the passing of the Right Reverend Nicholas Salamis.
This is a loss for his family, his friends, myself, the Greek Orthodox Church and the thousands of parishioners whom he served for over four decades as a priest.
Father Nicholas Salamis was among the first of the Greeks to have immigrated to Canada, settling in Montreal in 1919.
At the age of 35 Nicholas Salamis returned to Athens to study theology and was ordained a Greek Orthodox priest in 1938.
Father Salamis was my spiritual leader when I was a student at Socrates Elementary School. During his long career he touched many lives, bearing witness to over four generations of Greek immigrants to Canada, selflessly contributing to his beloved community in Montreal, having baptized, married and buried tens of thousands of Canadians of Hellenic origin while at the same time watching as each new generation matured and made their contribution to Canada, his own beloved second patrida .
He had turned 108 just last August, his life indeed also bearing witness to Canada's rise from little more than a colony into the independent nation we know today.