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Xenofon Moschou (*31). December 1858; 1939, Athens was an important pastor of the Greek Evangelical Church. He was a pioneer of the Protestant movement in Asia Minor and founder of the II. Greek Evangelical Church in Athens.

CVC
Moschou was born on 31 December 1858 in Thessaloniki as the son of a priest. When he was five years old, his mother died, and by the time he reached the age of 11, his seven brothers had also died. His father was influenced by the biblical interpretations of Adamantios Korais and was critical of various teachings of the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, he began with Xenofon at the age of 12 with the training as a choir singer in his parish church.

At the age of 13, Moschou had an experience of “rebirth” (αναγέννησης). Since that event, he began to systematically read the New Testament. For this he renounced orthodox customs such as regular fasting and prayers to the saints. Even if he wanted to fit into the Orthodox Church, he could not gain a foothold and the “strangeness of his innovations” (παράξενος νεωτερισμός του) left him no place in the Church. Therefore, when he studied at the Philosophical School (Φιλοσοφική Σχολή) of Athens, he decided to join the Greek Evangelical Church. He participated in the event of the First Greek Evangelical Church and accepted himself the excommunication by his father. However, his father changed his mind after a few years, he converted himself and became a presbyter (elder) in the Greek Evangelical Church of Thessaloniki (Ελληνική Ευαγγελική Εκκλησία Θεσσαλονίκης) and was ultimately killed by fanatics.

Xenophon Moschou graduated from the University of Athens and then moved to Edinburgh to study theology for two more years. In 1884 he returned to Thessaloniki, married and served as a preacher in the community there. In 1886 he took up a position as a teacher at the secondary school in Athens (δημόσιο γυμνάσιο) and preached during the week at the Greek Evangelical Church of Piraeus (Ελληνική Ευαγγελική Εκκλησία Πειραιά). At the same time he began his writing and translation work. In 1892 he took up a position as pastor of the Greek Evangelical Church of Smyrna (Ελληνική Ευαγγελική Εκκλησία Σμύρνης).

For 30 years, until the Asia Minor disaster (Μικρασιατική Καταστροφή) of 1922, Moschou served in the community in Smyrna. Among other things, he also worked in various cities of Eastern Asia Minor, Pontos and Cyprus as well as in Egypt and wrote biblical studies. Although he was often threatened by fanatics (several times stoned and twice almost killed), he worked with the metropolitan of Smyrna Chrysostomos. Together with him he distributed New Testaments to the Greek soldiers and