The story of Father Nicholas Salamis, a Greek Orthodox priest, is also the story of Greek Canadians themselves, from the time the first immigrants set foot on the land until today, where the Greek community has become an integral part of Canadian society.
Father Salamis personally witnessed the arrival of four generations of Greek immigrants to Canada, and helped them make a life and find solace in a land which was completely foreign to them.
During his lifetime of service as a Greek Orthodox priest in Montreal, he performed over 10,000 liturgies and other religious ceremonies, until finally retiring at ninety years of age.
Nicholas Salamis was born on Samos, Greece in 1897, the son of Constantinos and Marigo. Coming from a poor family, he was basically forced to leave his home at the age of seventeen and migrate to North America to join his older brother Vassilios, who was already there.
Salamis settled into the Greek community of Montreal in 1919. He returned to Greece for five years in the 1930s, marrying Efrosini Vergou in 1938, and was later ordained as a Greek Orthodox priest.