Metropolitan of Kastoria Germanos Karavangelis
He was born in Lesbos in 1866. He had studied in the Theological School of Chalki and later in Germany.

He had taught religious history in the Theological School of Chalki and was later appointed suffragan bishop in Pera in Constantinople. In the late 1900s he became Bishop of Kastoria. Since then he was an activist, reinforcing Patriarchist villages and organizing their resistance against Bulgarian pressure to recognize the Exarchate, but also pressuring Exarchist villages to return to the sphere of influence of the Patriarchate. At the same time, he came into contact with armed leaders that had so far collaborated with IMRO (the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization), mostly Slav-speaking people, such as Kotas and Captain Vangelis, in order to organize guerilla bands that would protect Patriarchist villages and would confront the komitadjis. He tried to take advantage of his relations with the Ottoman authorities, pointing out to them the risks that Bulgarian infiltration would entail. Germanos Karavangelis was one of the most important agents of Greek defence in western Macedonia. The Macedonian organizations of Athens and the army officers coordinating the struggle were in contact with him. In 1907, provoked by his activity, the Turks demanded from the Patriarch - and achieved - his removal from Macedonia.

Captain Kotas (Konstantinos Christou)
He was born in Roulia (today Kotas) in Koresti of Florina. He was the muktar (headman) of his village and clashed with the Albanian beys of his area.

After having murdered one of them, he took to the mountains as the leader of an armed band. Initially he collaborated with IMRO, however, without distinguishing between Patriarchist and Exarchist Christians. This stance led him to clash with the Exarchists. Thus, even though he was Slav-speaking, he came into contact with the metropolitan Germanos Karavangelis, who had financed his group and secured a scholarship of the Greek state for his sons to study in Athens. He came into a bitter confrontation with the groups of the komitadjis and protected Patriarchist villages from their activities. Kotas' efforts constituted the most important armed resistance of the Patriarchists in Macedonia before the involvement of army officers and troops from Greece. He was the one to lead and protect the army officers dispatched from Macedonia in the beginning of 1904, to survey the situation there. In the summer of that same year he was arrested by the Turks and hanged in 1905, despite the efforts of the Greek consulate authorities to save him.

Pavlos Melas (nom de guerre Mikis Zezas)
He was born in Marseilles in 1870. An artillery officer, he was a relative through marriage of Stephanos and Ion Dragoumis, two of the leading figures in the promotion of the Macedonian issue.

A member of the Ethniki Etairia (National Society), he had fought in the 1897 war. He was one of the four army officers dispatched to Macedonia in the winter of 1904 to evaluate the situation there. At the beginning he believed that a Greek guerilla movement could be organized by the natives with the encouragement of the Greek state. Later, in his next journey, he formulated the view that only with Greek-organized forces could Bulgarian infiltration be checked. In August 1904 he took on the leadership of the struggle in Kastoria and Monastir. With a group of ten Cretans he entered Macedonia and became involved in Kastoria. He toured various villages of the area, to avenge the murders of Greeks and to attack various Exarchist homes. On 13/26 October 1904 he was trapped in the village Statitsa (today Melas) by a Turkish detachment and was mortally injured. His body was buried by the Metropolitan Germanos Karavangelis in the Taxiarches Church in Kastoria.

Tellos Agras (nom de guerre of Sarantos Agapinos)
He was born in Nafplion in 1880. An officer of the Greek army, who entered Macedonia in September 1906 with a group of twelve evzones.

His career began around the Yenitsa (Yanitsa) Lake. This area was an important crossroads in central Macedonia and whoever controlled it had a strategical advantage over his opponent. In the 'Marsh' Greek and Bulgarian groups made huts and opened passages among the reed-thickets, while transport was carried out by plaves (wooden boats with no keel). Serious engagements took place between them for the control of various positions of the lake. In November of that same year Agras, who was already suffering already from malaria, was wounded and hospitalized in Thessaloniki. Very soon he returned, only to leave for good in February 1907. Convalescing in Naousa he came into contact with Exarchists in order to settle disputes. When he met them, he was arrested, disarmed, pilloried in the villages and eventually hanged on 7/20 July 1907 in the area between the villages Tekovo and Vladovo (today Agras) in Pella. His story inspired the novel Sta mystika tou Valtou by Penelope Delta.