Chrysostomos I (Papadopoulos) of Athens

His Beatitude Chrysostomos I (Papadopoulos) of Athens was the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and primate of the Church of Greece from 1923 until his death in 1938. He was noted as a theological scholar and historian. During his tenure the use in Greece of the Revised Julian calendar was initiated.

Life

Archbishop Chrysostomos was born on July 1, 1868 in Madytos in eastern Thrace. He received his early education at Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Smyrna before studying theology from 1889 to 1891 at the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens. He then continued his theological education in Russia at the theological academies in Kiev from 1891 to 1893 and St. Petersburg from 1893 to 1895.

After graduating from the St. Petersburg Academy, Chrysostomos began teaching at the theological school of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem in 1895. During his time as teacher, Chrysostomos was tonsured a monk and subsequently entered the Holy Orders. Soon was ordained a hieromonk. In 1900, he was raised to the dignity of archimandrite.

In 1909, Fr. Chrysostomos transferred to the Church of Alexandria as a parish priest before returning the Athens in 1911 as the director of the Rizarion Seminary. Subsequently, Fr. Chrysostomos was named professor of church history at the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens. In 1923, Fr. Chrysostomos was elected Metropolitan of Athens. Under the Basic Law of the Autocephalous Church of Greece that was issued in December 1923 during the first year of his tenure as first hierarch he was elevated to Archbishop on December 31, 1923, a title he held until his reposed. It was during his reign that the issue of adopting the Revised Julian calendar was initiated. This action later created the schism of the various old calendar groups.

During the time Abp. Chrysostomos was the first hierarch of Greece, the Theological College of Apostoliki Diakonia was founded on July 22, 1937, the culmination of plans that began in the last decade of the nineteenth century, although due to World War II and its aftermath classes did not begin until 1948.

Abp. Chrysostomos reposed on October 28, 1938.

Works

During his career, Abp. Chrysostomos wrote a number of books concerning church history. These included:

• History of the Jerusalem Church in 1910
• History of the Church of Greece published in Athens in 1920
• History of the Church of Alexandria published in Alexandria in 1935.

He also wrote about the church in Antioch, Serbia, and Romania.

Succession box: Chrysostomos I (Papadopoulos) of Athens
Preceded by: Theocletus I (Minopoulos)	Archbishop of Athens 1923-1938	Succeeded by: Chrysanthos (Philoppidis)

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Sources

• Athens Archbishop
• Papadopoulos, Chrysostomos

Externel links

• The New Calendar Innovation and Its Fruits
• Brief history of the Theological College