Chrysostomos (Alemangos) of Sydney

His Eminence Chrysostomos (Alemangos) was the Bishop of Sydney and New South Wales, and Exarch of Australia, for the Holy Synod in Resistance from 1993 to 2010.

Biography

• 1929: Born Nicholas Alemangos in Petalidi, Messenia, Greece.
• Became a monk at 14, at Panagoulaki Skete, Kalamata.
• Soon sent to Mt Athos, living an ascetic life in one of the desert huts, under the jurisdiction of the Skete of St Anne. He learnt iconography.
• Enrolled at the Athonias School in Karyes. During his attendance at the school, he was a brother of Esphigmenou monastery.
• 1963: Celebration of 1000-year anniversary of Mt Athos brought him in contact with Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople, who sent him to Constantinople to study theology at Halki. The Turkish authorities did not allow this, because he was a Greek from outside Turkey; so he returned to Greece and was admitted to the Theological Faculty of the University of Thessaloniki.
• 1967: Ordained as a priest.
• 1969: He graduated from the university with "highest honors". Subsequently sent to Australia to serve the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand.

Bishop Chrysostomos

• Dec 1970: Public and formal joint prayer of Archbishop Ezeliel with the Pope (despite assurances to then-Archimandrite Chrysostomos that this wouldn't occur), led to Archim. Chrysostomos leaving the Archdiocese.
• Subsequently recruited by the Koinotites (the Federation of Greek Communities, which had left the Archdiocese) and consecrated as a bishop in 1971 by Archbishop Spyridon (Ermogenous) of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of the Greek Communities of Australia and bishop of the Free Serbian Orthodox Church and the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
• Bishop Chrysostomos applied himself to founding churches and schools, teaching the Greek language and religion to the children of Greek-Australians.
• A few years later, Bp. Chrysostomos became convinced of the unsound and uncanonical status and stand of the autocephality that the Federation's church held to. He distanced himself from them, and retreated into ecclesiastical isolation - though he continued to serve his own spiritual children (culturally and religiously) through his See at the Church of the Holy Unmercenaries, Sydney.
• Sep 1993: Bp Chrysostomos asked for entry into the Holy Synod in Resistance, which was accepted. On the September 30, he was elected Most Reverend Bishop of Sydney and New South Wales, and appointed Synodal Exarch in Australia.
• 1994 June 30 (Old Style): Enthroned by Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili

• Distinguished for his eloquence, his notable proficiency in homiletics, his gentle sweetness, and his love of services and the Church. Showed profound regard and sincere reverence towards Metropolitan Cyprian, and the brotherhood in the Monastery of Ss Cyprian and Justina.
• Built parishes and monastic institutions in Australia and Greece; built a metochion (dependency), the Holy Hesychasterion of the Theotokos Gorgoepikoos, on his family estate in Petalidi.

• At some point, due to failing health, he moved to Kalamata, Greece, where he stayed in his final years.
• Established the parish church of the Theotokos the Healer in Asprochoma.
• September 22, 2010: Bp Chrysostomos reposed in Petalidi. His funeral was at the newly-built church of Theotokos the Healer in Asprochoma, and was celebrated by Bishops Cyprian of Oreoi (acting president of the Holy Synod in Resistance) and Klemes of Gardikion, with other clergy. The next day, he was buried at the Hesychasterion he established on his family estate, in a grave he prepared himself.

Bibliography

• Funeral notice (including bibliography)
• Brief biography on website