Germanos (Troianos) of Monemvasia and Lacedaemonos

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His Eminence Germanos (Troianos) of Monemvasia and Lacedaemonos was a hierarch of the Church of Greece who was appointed by the royalist faction of the Church of Greece in the early 1920s as exarch of the Greek parishes in the United States.

Life

Little is known of the early life of Bishop Germanos (Troianos). He was the Bishop of Monemvasia and Lacedaemonos when he was appointed by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece as its exarch in the United States in early 1921. He arrived in New York on July 2, 1921[1] in the midst of the political and jurisdictional disputes between the Venizelists and Royalists as well as the Church of Constantinople and the Church of Greece over the Greek Orthodox faithful in the United States. Adding to the confusion were the changes in the situation as the roles of governing Greece alternated between the Venizelists and Royalists after the end of World War I, and as Archbishop Meletius, a Venizelist, moved from the See of Athens to that of Constantinople. A Royalist, Germanos on his arrival acted with the authority of both a Royalist Church of Greece and government of Greece. Bp. Germanos sought to bring all priests and parishes under his authority as Meletius now patriarch, returned jurisdiction of the Greek parishes in North America back to the Church of Constantinople from that of the Church of Greece.

In this atmosphere, Metr. Germanos' presence only contributed to the divisions among the Greek Orthodox parishes as Germanos extended his authority over about fifty parishes. As a consequence of the changed relations between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Church of Greece, Metr. Germanos was recalled by Constantinople in 1923. However, while with his return to Greece the division of the Greek Orthodox in America into two rival ecclesiastical jurisdictions should have come to an end, it did not. The division between the Royalists and the Venizelists in the United States persisted and was not healed until the arrival of Abp. Athenagoros in the United States in the early 1930s.

Sources