Continuing along his medical observations, Rev. Mr. Skipitares said:

"Doctors sometime do very bad things. If they cannot correctly diagnose a case, they just give a tonic or a little stimulating prescription, saying: 'Take this, it will make you feel better, and come back tomorrow.'

"In this town I try out different medicines in my own body, to observe the result -- I want myself to see the effect of certain drugs.

"Yes, if I get sick I call a physician. I follow his directions and expect him to help me, but I do not depend on him altogether. I use my own things, too.

"Fasting is sometimes a great help. We have the custom from Greece, it rests the physical body and develops the spiritual body, producing God's great gift, the ability to foretell and foresee. For two or three years I fasted frequently, but I gave it up, now observing only the religious days of fasting and prayer.

"You know it is written in the Bible where the Greeks went to Jesus, and He talked with them, explaining that man is to glorify God.

"He gave the New Testament to the Greeks, saying: 'If the world goes upside down, my word prevails.'

"Christ, Himself, fasted for forty days. The Orthodox Greeks fast four times a year, commemorating the four corners of the earth, the four disciples, the four archanes, and the four pillars that hold the earth. Heaven moves, but not the earth, according to the Bible. That is why the sun gets so hot -- it is set in one place. And it is like the Word of God --- 'The earth and heaven may be removed -- My Word is not removed.'

"The reason for some and so many religious beliefs? Oh, well, that is because the heads of the Church at different periods of the world's history, have set up their own translations, deleting what they could not interpret, and inserting statements and theories they wished to incorporate. In other words, they fixed up the Holy Bible to suit themselves. That is why we now have so many different denominations.

"From a medical standpoint, I have come to the conclusion that the mother's mind has great influence on her unborn child. You will remember the article in the newspaper just a few days ago, where a Phillipine mother gave birth to a baby with it's heart outside its little body. The mother is a Catholic, she was under the tutelage of a Catholic priest, with probably a picture of the Sacred Heart in the room, or probably she wore a cord around her neck wit a picture attached or a medal of the same illustrations, which she fingered and looked at constantly. This pre-natal influence affected the child, resulting in a freak birth.

"It is my opinion that a pregnant mother can make her child anything she wants. That is psychology.

"It comes from a Greek word - 'phy -chole' meaning you find a secret of your soul. As a child in Greece I was taught not to seek so much material things, but as the Bible says -- 'The Kingdom of God within.' I wanted to have the great gift from within - intuition. Lots of things a mother knows comes so quick she does not know where she gets it. It is an impression direct from the soul.

"When I was a young child I knew our life comes from the sun; that the life currents enter through the solar plexis - the sun center; that a blow on the solar plexis was to be avoided, because it was fatal to life.

"The front of the body is positive - the back is negative. If a woman has a pain or headache in the back of her neck, do not let the heat of the sun shine on the nerve center there, but place her so the sun shines on here throat, opposite the pain, and it will cure it.

"But sad to say, the doctor gives an anesthetic for pain, putting the nerves to sleep, or the person trying to relieve himself takes a headache powder, containing what he knows not, instead of using the ancient treatment.

"We cannot live without the sun. If there were no sun, there would be no life on this planet. Our physical life and our physique is tied up with the sun's vibrations. If people were removed from the electrical force of the sun, or compelled to live under different planetary conditions, they would become weak or not survive at all.

"The sun also causes the fruits and vegetables to grow and mature and used as food, they are quicker and more satisfactory in restoring the normal condition of a diseased body than drugs and meat.

"Getting back to pre-natal influence, the father also has influence upon the unborn child at a certain period. You see a child up to the ninety day period is nothing but flesh, then it begins to move and becomes a little warm. After ninety days, if the father and mother, say, at the table, begin to quarrel over some trivial thing, or if they have other children and there are harsh words and quarreling, it is very harmful. The mother takes in these hateful sights and sounds, and it produces a hateful, quarrelsome child. Or say, a pregnant mother were sitting here sewing, and a neighbor comes in and picks up something and walks away with it -- a bottle of milk, or an article of clothing; then when questioned lies about the incident. The mother takes this in through her eyes, and it is forced on the unborn child, who will become later a thief and liar. He is marked before he is born, his destiny inflicted upon him through his mother having been forced to witness and pass through this unfortunate

"Before he was born Christ tells us in the 51st Psalm where David says he was born from his mother's belly. Our people of Greece know that -- mothers teach it at home to their children.

"The Grecians are a people of faith and devout. The Orthodox Greeks do not believe in limitation of families. Of course, the younger generations over here, I cannot say. I suppose they understand the modern birth control ideas, which, I am sorry to say, were first promulgated by a Catholic priest, and taught to his parrishioners.

"But the Greeks believe this: If you bring one hundred babies into the world, each has its special gift and contribution to make to civilization.

"Not so long ago a young man of my church came to me and said he wished to get married, but could not afford it. He was a druggist and struggling to make good financially. I said to him that marriage is the proper state for man, and if the girl were willing, go ahead but not think so much about finance and what money will buy. They were married in my church. When the young wife became pregnant, the husband came to me greatly worried, saying here time was near at hand and he did not have the money to send her to the hospital. I said - ""Sell the drug store. The baby that is coming is worth all the drug stores in the world. He will more than make up for your temporary financial difficulties."" Well, he sold the drug store and the wife went to the hospital.

"She came through fine, giving birth to a beautiful baby body. The husband went to work as a clerk in a friend's drug store. After all the bills were paid, he started adding to what was left of the two thousand dollars he realized from the sale of his business. He had good luck, and now, twelve years later, he is prosperous and happy, has three drug stores and six children.

"The Greek women are probably considered old fashioned, they defer to their husbands, making a kind of partnership, like - 'Well, we are starting a life together, we will do the best we can, we will work, labor and love, and be happy, and maybe we will prosper, maybe we won't - whatever God wishes us to do.' That is marriage based on the right principles."

Shown a newspaper illustration of the wedding party of "Wrestling Adonis" - Jim Londos - whose marriage reported August 18, 1939, in Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville copied from a Beverly Hills, California, newspaper article, and asked about the flower crowns used in the Greek ceremony, Rev. Skipitares said:

"Jim Londos married! H-m-m- - yes, I knew him very well, a fine fellow. Well, the Bible says a rich man had two sons; one took his inheritance and left, later coming back to his father, after fooling away his property on material things, and ate with the pigs. So Jim Londos is married. Well, I wish him all the luck in the world.

"About the flower crowns -- martyrs went to their death with a crown on their head and a ring from the people who loved them. When one becomes king, he is invested with a heavy crown; when Christ went to the cross, he had a crown of thorns. In a Greek wedding ceremony, the crown of flowers, the two tied together, means a couple is united, to live together until death parts them, and they assume together the responsibilities which God may cause to come their way.

"The prayer chanted at the time they are crowned as bride and groom is for their happiness and steadfastness as man and wife in God's sight.

"Well, I've got to go now. I am marked overtime downstairs and if I do not get my car out right away, I'll get a red ticket, and I know you do not want me to have to go to the police station.

"If any additional information is needed that I can supply, I shall be glad to have you call on me again."

October 16, 1939
Rev. Elias Skipitares,
Minister,
Eastern Hellenic Orthodox
Community Church,
"The Revelation of
St. John Divine"
Cor. Laura and Union-sts.
Jacksonville, Florida.
Rose Shepherd, writer.

Text from: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection