interwiki, renameuser, Administrators
13,552
edits
Changes
→Life: photo
==Life==
[[Image:Athenagoras and Iakovos.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Patr. [[Athenagoras I (Spyrou) of Constantinople|Athenagoras]] and Abp. Iakovos]]
===Early Years===
Iakovos was born '''Demetrios A. Coucouzis''' on the Greek island of Imvros (Turkey) in 1911 to Maria and Athanasios Coucouzis, one of four children, including two sisters (Virginia and Chrysanthi) and a brother (Panagiotis). He enrolled at the Ecumenical Patriarchal Theological School at Halki at the age of 15, where he earned a Master's Degree in Orthodox Theology, graduating in 1934 with high honors.
Demetrios was ordained to the holy [[deacon|diaconate]] in 1934, receiving then the name Iakovos, and he served as a deacon to Archbishop [[Athenagoras I (Spyrou) I of Constantinople|Athenagoras]] (later Ecumenical Patriarch). In 1940, Iakovos was ordained to the [[priest]]hood in Lowell, Massachusetts, serving churches in Connecticut, St. Louis, and New York, and also serving as the assistant dean of [[Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (Brookline, Massachusetts)]]. In 1942, he was appointed as dean of Annunciation Cathedral in Boston and served in that capacity until 1954. During this time, he earned a Master's degree in Sacred Theology from Harvard Divinity School (1945) and became a U.S. citizen (1950).
In 1954, Iakovos was elected to the [[bishop|episcopacy]] and appointed as Bishop of Melita by Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, being consecrated the following year. In 1956, he was elevated to the rank of [[metropolitan]]. Between 1955 and 1959 he served as representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople at the [[World Council of Churches]] in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1959, he became the first Greek Orthodox archbishop to meet with a Pope of Rome in 350 years, visiting Pope John XXIII as a special emissary of Patriarch Athenagoras.
