Biography

• 1914 -- On February 18 Costas Montis is born in Famagusta, Cyprus. He is the sixth and last child of Theodoulos Montis and Kalomoira Batista. His father is a government employee from Lapithos. His mother is the offspring of an old Venetian family from Famagusta.
• 1915 -- Theodoulos Montis is transferred to Limassol.
• 1919   Theodoulos Montis is transferred to Larnaca. Costas Montis attends the Kalogeras Kindergarten and then the Astiki Scholi Skalas (elementary school).
• 1922 -- Costas Montis' brother Yiorgos, third child of the family, dies of tuberculosis at the age of 21, and his brother Nikos, fourth child of the family, dies of leukemia at the age of 16.
• 1926 -- Kalomoira Montis is on her deathbed with tuberculosis. Theodoulos Montis takes the then twelve-year-old Costas to Nicosia so that he won't see his mother die. Kalomoira dies, and the whole family moves from Larnaca to Nicosia. They rent a house at Ayii Omologites, a suburb of Nicosia. The same year Theoloulos Montis retires. Costas Montis is in the first grade of secondary school at the Hellenic School in Morphou, where his brother-in-law, Costas Sylvestros, is working as a teacher.
• 1927 -- Costas Montis returns to Nicosia and attends the Pancyprian Gymnasium (Kentriko).
• 1930 -- Theodoulos Montis dies of cancer.
• 1932 -- Costas Montis graduates from the Pancyprian Gymnasium. He sells family land in Famagusta, Kyrenia, and Karavas, and leaves for Athens, Greece, where he enrolls in the University of Athens Law School. At the same time he works as a correspondent for the Cyprus newspaper Eleftheria under the pen name Costas Alkimos.
• 1937 -- In November he graduates from Law School, and returns to Cyprus. However, the British colonial government does not allow graduates from Greek universities to practice law in Cyprus. Therefore, Costas Montis starts looking for a job.
• 1938 -- In May he gets a job in the Accounting Office of the Greek Mining Company in Nicosia.
  In June he is transferred to the Mines of Mitsero as a supervisor at the company offices there.
  In July he is transferred to the Mines of Kalavasos as a supervisor at the company offices there. At the same time he is a correspondent again for the newspaper Eleftheria, and he reports on the living conditions of the workers of Kalavasos.
• 1939 -- He is promoted to assistant manager at the company offices in Nicosia.
• 1940 -- The mines close down because of World War II. Costas Montis starts working as a teacher at the Accounting School in Morphou founded by his brother-in-law Costas Sylvestros.
• 1942 -- He moves to Nisocia and founds together with Achilleas Lymbourides and Phivos Moussoulides the first professional theater in Cyprus. They give it the name Lyriko. Verses by Costas Montis are put to music by Lymbourides. One of these poems, Drosoulla has become very popular over the years, and is considered a folk song by many people.
  Costas Montis gets engaged to his sweetheart, 19-year-old Ersi, daughter of Pantelis Constantinou and Maria Gabrielidou from Morphou.
• 1944 -- Lyriko closes down, and Costas Montis returns to his position at the Accounting School. He publishes and manages together with Phivos Moussoulides the theatrical and literary magazine The Theater (until 1946).
• 1946 -- On February 24 Costas Montis and Ersi Constantinou get married.
  Costas Montis gets a job at the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce as senior editor of The Cyprus Chamber of Commerce Journal.
  He publishes the newspaper Elefthera Phoni (until 1947).
  On November 8 Theodoulos, first child of Costas and Ersi Montis, is born.
• 1948 -- He gets a position as an editor at the newspaper Ethnos.
• 1949 -- On March 22 Marios, second child of Costas and Ersi Montis, is born.
• 1950 -- Costas Montis' sister Elengo, second child of the family of Theodoulos Montis, dies of cancer at the age of 47.
  Costas Montis gets a position as Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce of Cyprus.
• 1953 -- He publishes the Cyprus Trade Journal, in both Greek and English.
  On September 28 Lellos, third child of Costas and Ersi Montis, is born.
• 1954 -- Costas Montis' sister Chrystalla, fifth child of the family of Theodoulos Montis, dies of intestinal inactivity.
• 1955 -- Costas Montis takes part in the liberation struggle of 1955-1959 as political guide of the members of EOKA in Nicosia.
• 1956 -- He is in charge of the literary section of the magazine Times of Cyprus (until 1969).
  On July 18 Stalo, fourth and last child of Costas and Ersi Montis, is born.
• 1961 -- He is appointed Director of Tourism.
• 1976 -- Having worked for 15 years as Director of Tourism, he retires.
• 1983 -- Costas Montis' only living sibling and first child of the family of Theodoulos Montis, Irinia, dies at the age of 83.
• 2004 -- On March 1 Costas Montis dies in his home at the age of 90.