Michael (Staikos) of Austria
His Eminence Michael (Staikos) of Austria was the Metropolitan of the Metropolis of Austria and Exarch of Hungary and Central Europe under the jurisdiction of the Church of Constantinople from 1991 to 2011.
Life
Metr. Michael was born in Athens, Greece on November 22, 1946. He attended the gymnasium of the Catholic Marist Brothers in Athens before continuing his education at the Aristotle University of Thessalonica from which he received a doctorate in theology.
In 1964, he moved to Vienna, Austria where he spent most of his ecclesiastical career. In 1965, he was appointed to the position of secretary for Metropolitan Chrysostomos (Tsiter) in the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Austria. In November 1977, he was ordained a deacon and then a priest before his elevation to archimandrite. He was appointed to the office of the Vicar General of the Metropolitan and was named the priest of the Greek Orthodox Church in Vienna. He was also director of the Greek National School.
On November 5, 1985, he was elected a vicar bishop of the Orthodox Metropolis of Austria by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and was consecrated[1] on January 11, 1986. In November 1991, Bp. Michael was elected by the Holy Synod as Metropolitan of Austria and Exarch of Hungary and Central Europe, the second bishop to hold that office. During the following years Bp. Michael also served on the Holy Synod.
During his tenure he revived Orthodox life in the country of Hungary and was active serving the approximately half million Orthodox Christians in Austria. He was successful in having an Orthodox priest assigned for pastoral care of Orthodox troops in the Austrian army. He was also awarded the Golden Commander’s Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Austria. In addition, he received a number of other honors including, in 1972 the Order of St. Vladimir and the Golden Cross of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1993 the Grand Cross of the Polish Orthodox Church, in 1994 the Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, in 2008 the Ukrainian Order of Merit, and in 2011 the Order of Honor of the Republic of Greece, in addition to the Golden Commander’s Star of the Order of Merit.
Between 1996 and 1999, Metr. Michael was chairman of the World Council of Churches in Austria and, in October 2010, the Orthodox Bishops Conference of Austria was founded under his chairmanship. Metr. Michael also was a lecturer at the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek and at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University of Vienna.
Metr. Michael reposed in the Lord on October 18, 2011 at the age of sixty-four after a long illness with cancer. He was buried at the Central Cemetery in Vienna.
| Michael (Staikos) of Austria | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: ? |
Bishop vicar of Metropolis of Austria 1985 - 1991 |
Succeeded by: ? |
| Preceded by: Chrysostomos (Tsiter) |
Metropolitan of Austria 1991 - 2011 |
Succeeded by: Arsenius |