Theophilos Peros was born in Vathy, Kalymnos, in 1907. A poor child of illiterate parents but of remarkable intelligence, he completed primary school in Vathy at the age of 10 and graduated from the Nikiforeio Gymnasium in Kalymnos in 1923, at only 16 years old. He then moved to Athens to study Medicine, accompanied by his father, who sold sponges as a street vendor in central Athens to support them.
He graduated with honors and received his medical degree in 1929. That same year, following Mario Lago’s infamous decree which required Dodecanese scientists to validate their Greek diplomas with supplementary studies in Italy, Peros went to the University Hospital of Parma. He stayed there for 25 months, excelled in his studies, and was awarded a doctorate with the highest distinction.
After returning from Italy, he practiced medicine in Kalymnos for about three years for financial reasons. There, he met and cared for the then-hermit Saint Savvas, who, in gratitude, painted and dedicated to him the icon of Saint Panteleimon—before which thousands of people later prayed.
He collaborated with Skevos Zervos, the greatest fighter for the liberation and union of the Dodecanese with Greece, and the only Greek who so passionately and persistently promoted Hippocrates worldwide.
During the Greco-Italian War, Peros enlisted in the Battalion of Dodecanese Volunteers but, on orders from the Director of the clinic and Chief Medical Officer of the Army, Nikolaos Sbarounis, he remained at Evangelismos Hospital as an indispensable curator for treating the wounded from the Albanian front.
In 1943, while the Dodecanese was still under Italian occupation, he returned to Kalymnos with his elderly parents so they would not starve in Athens. The Italians viewed him with suspicion, calling him daily to the police station without interrogation, as it was well known to intelligence services that he was a close associate of Skevos Zervos. Eventually, they sent him to the hospital in Kos—established in 1929 under the name Ospedale Hippocrateo.
Thanks to his broad, versatile, and unique medical knowledge, Peros covered not only surgery but also internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, urology, otolaryngology, orthopedics, and microbiology. Anesthesiology did not yet exist as a specialty; he used chloroform and prepared local anesthesia himself, as well as serums, which he administered with large needles subcutaneously in the thigh, since ready-made ones did not exist and antibiotics were essentially unavailable. The “miracle drug” penicillin, discovered in 1943, was scarce even in Athens until after 1950. Instruments were sterilized by boiling, and silk sutures were sterilized by him.
He also collaborated with Allied forces, providing valuable information about Italian troop positions.
In 1946, alongside his hospital work, he began organizing an operating room and set up a small clinic named Saint Panteleimon in a bombed building belonging to his wife’s father, Ioannis Bakaloglou. Once restored, it also served as his residence. The clinic never functioned as a business but as a center of salvation, and Peros himself never acted as an entrepreneur but as a humble laborer wholly devoted to medicine.
That same year, he served as president of the electoral committee during the first municipal elections in Kos, recognized as the most reliable and respected figure. On February 5, 1950, the first elections of the Medical Association of Kos were held, with Peros serving as president for many years. He upheld the prestige of the medical profession and the institution of the Association’s presidency. Deeply democratic, committed to national issues, faithful to the ideals of Hellenism, he could have served any public institution with the same dedication as he did medicine.
From his marriage to the late, beloved Yasemi, he had four exceptional children, three of whom inherited his medical gift:
- Georgios Peros, a renowned surgeon and professor of surgery at the University of Athens.
- Anastasia Perou, a microbiologist who served diligently at the General Hospital of Kos (1980–2011).
- Giannis Peros, an excellent dermatologist active between Athens and Zurich, Switzerland.
- Maria Perou, a notary living and working in Rhodes.
Theophilos Peros, a great Kalymnian, passed away in 1989 in Kalymnos.
Young doctors should take inspiration from his life and work, both for the benefit of society and the homeland.
For the Provincial Medical Association of Kalymnos “Skevos Zervos”
The President: Apostolatos Gerasimos
The Secretary General: Mavros Michail
