Archbishop Spyridon of Athens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (May 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Spyridon (secular name: Σπυρίδων Βλάχος Spyridon Vlachos), was Archbishop of Athens and All Greece from 1949 until 1956. He was born in Chili (Χήλη), in present-day northern Turkey, and studied at the Halki seminary. As a senior preacher in Kavala, he offered moral and material support to the Struggle for Macedonia, and in 1906, he was elected Metropolitan Bishop of Vella and Konitsa. His services during the Balkan Wars and on the matter of Northern Epirus were significant. In the Vella Monastery, he founded a seminary based on a primary school.

In 1916, he was elected Metropolitan Bishop of Ioannina and in 1949 was elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. He worked to reorganize the church after the Second World War and the Greek Civil War. He actively participated in the war in Cyprus, and was succeeded by Makarios, later Archbishop of Cyprus.

He died in 1956 and was succeeded by Archbishop Dorotheus.