For decades, Swiss dentist Julien Grivel traveled to Greece to voluntarily treat Hansen’s disease patients at Athens’ “Agia Varvara” hospital, many transferred there from Spinalonga.
Last week, at 83, he received honorary Greek citizenship, calling it “an unspeakable honor” and “the best gift.”
Grivel first arrived in 1972 after a friend urged him to care for a leprosy patient. He stayed for years, returning four to six weeks annually until 1998. He recalls his first patient, Epaminondas Remoundakis, blind and disfigured, yet proud and warm, welcoming him beneath a fig tree before offering him raki in his room. The dentist said the experience taught him that “when prejudice and fear disappear, the meeting between two different worlds becomes possible through acceptance, respect and love.”
He learned Greek, married nurse Christiane, who joined his mission, and eventually became an honorary citizen of Agia Varvara. “I have two homelands,” he said, “but Greece is my Ithaca.”
A documentary released in 2024, “Sculpted Souls,” portrayed his quiet devotion and his search for light amid suffering and exile years.
