Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople

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Athenagoras I
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
Statue of the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople in Chania (Crete).
Installed	November 1, 1948
Term ended	July 7, 1972
Predecessor	Maximos V
Successor	Demetrios I
Personal details
Birth name	Aristocles Spyrou
Born	6 April [O.S. 25 March] 1886 Vasilikón, Epirus, Greece
Died	July 7, 1972(1972-07-07) (aged 86) Phanar, Istanbul, Turkey

Athenagoras I (Greek: Αθηναγόρας Α'), born Aristocles Spyrou (Greek: Αριστοκλής Σπύρου; 6 April [O.S. 25 March] 1886 – July 7, 1972) was the 268th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1948 to 1972.

Life

Patriarch Athenagoras was born on April 6 [O.S. March 25] 1886 into a Greek family^[1] as Aristocles Spyrou in Vasiliko, near Ioannina, Epirus (then Ottoman Empire). As a matter of fact, his parents were Vlach, or Aromanians, but this issue better known inside the Aroumanian community worldwide. He was the son of the village doctor and his mother died when he was only 13. He attended the Patriarchical Theological School at Halki, Turkey, graduating in 1910. Upon graduating he was tonsured a monk, given the name Athenagoras, and ordained to the diaconate. He served as archdeacon of the Diocese of Pelagonia before becoming the secretary to Archbishop Meletius (Metaxakis) of Athens in 1919. While still a deacon, he was elected the Metropolitan of Corfu in 1922 and straightway raised to the episcopacy.

Athenagoras in the ruins of a church after the Istanbul Pogrom.

Returning from a fact-finding trip to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America in 1930, Metropolitan Damaskinos recommended to Patriarch Photios II that he appoint Metropolitan Athenagoras to the position of Archbishop of North and South America as the best person to bring harmony to the American diocese. The patriarch made the appointment on August 30, 1930.

When Archbishop Athenagoras assumed his new position on February 24, 1931, he was faced with the task of bringing unity and harmony to a diocese that was racked with dissension between Royalists and Republicans (Venizelists), who had virtually divided the country into separate dioceses. To correct that, he centralized the ecclesiastical administration in the Archdiocese offices with all other bishops serving as auxiliaries, appointed to assist the archbishop, without dioceses and administrative rights of their own. He actively worked with his communities to establish harmony. He expanded the work of the clergy-laity congresses and founded the Holy Cross School of Theology. Through his capable and fatherly leadership he withstood early opposition and gained the love and devotion of his people.

Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity

Archbishop Athenagoras consecrated the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity on New York City's Upper East Side on October 22, 1933.^[2] He called it: “The Cathedral of all of Hellenism in America.”^[2]

In 1938, Athenagoras was naturalized as a United States citizen.^[3] On November 1, 1948, he was elected Patriarch of Constantinople at the age of 61.^[4] In January 1949, he was honored to be flown in the personal airplane of the American president Harry Truman to Istanbul, Turkey to assume his new position.^[5] As Patriarch, he was actively involved with the World Council of Churches and improving relations with the Roman Catholic Pontiff, the Pope of Rome.

He was hospitalized on July 6, 1972 for a broken hip, but died from kidney failure in Istanbul (Constantinople) the following day at the age of 86.^[6] He was buried in the cemetery within the grounds of the Church of Saint Mary of the Spring in Balıklı, Istanbul.

His All Holiness' Tomb in Balıklı

Ecumenical relations

His meeting with Pope Paul VI in 1964 in Jerusalem led to rescinding the excommunications of 1054 which historically mark the Great Schism, the schism between the churches of the East and West. This was a significant step towards restoring communion between Rome and Constantinople and the other patriarchates of Orthodoxy. It produced the Catholic–Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965, which was read out on December 7, 1965, simultaneously at a public meeting of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Constantinople.

The controversial declaration did not end the 1054 schism, but rather showed a desire for greater reconciliation between the two churches, as represented by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I. Not all Orthodox leaders, however, received the declaration with joy. Metropolitan Philaret of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad openly challenged the Patriarch's efforts at rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church fearing it would lead to heresy, in his 1965 epistle to the Patriarch.

References

↑ Current biography yearbook. H.W. Wilson Company. 1950. p. 15.
↑ 2.0 2.1 "Cathedral History | Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity". Thecathedralnyc.org. Retrieved January 5, 2013.
↑ Current Biography, p. 3; Cianfarra, p. 87.
↑ Cianfarra, p. 87; Life, p. 53.
↑ Ilias Chrissochoidis (ed.), Spyros P. Skouras, Memoirs (1893–1953) (Stanford, 2013), 131.
↑ Newsweek, p. cxxii; Lutheran Church in America, p. 34.

Sources

Current Biography 10. H. W. Wilson Co. 1949.
Cianfarra, Camille Maximillian (1950). The Vatican and the Kremlin. Dutton.
Life. Time Inc. 1948. ISSN 0024-3019.
Lutheran Church in America (1972). The Lutheran 10. Lutheran Church in America.
Newsweek 80. Newsweek, Inc. 1972.

External links

OrthodoxWiki – Athenagoras I (Spyrou) of Constantinople
Catholic-Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965
A Protest to Patriarch Athenagoras On the Lifting of the Anathemas of 1054 by Metr. Philaret of New York (December 2/15, 1965)
Another Common Declaration of Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I (28 October 1967)
Remembering Patriarch Athenagoras
Find-A-Grave: Athenagoras I

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Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople

Orthodox Church titles
Preceded by Alexander	Archbishop of America 1931–1948	Succeeded by Michael
Preceded by Maximus V	Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople 1948–1972	Succeeded by Demetrius I

v t e Bishops of Byzantium and Patriarchs of Constantinople

Bishops of Byzantium (to 330 AD)	Saint Andrew Stachys Onesimus Polycarpus I Plutarch Sedecion Diogenes Eleutherius Felix Polycarpus II Athenodorus Euzois Laurence Alypius Pertinax Olympianus Marcus I Philadelphus Cyriacus I Castinus Eugenius I Titus Dometius Rufinus Probus Metrophanes Alexander

Archbishops of Constantinople (330–451 AD)	Alexander Paul I Eusebius Macedonius I Eudoxius Evagrius Demophilus Maximus I Gregory I Nectarius John I Chrysostom Arsacius Atticus Sisinnius I Nestorius Maximianus Proclus Flavian Anatolius

Patriarchs of Constantinople Byzantine period (451–1453 AD)	Anatolius Gennadius I Acacius Fravitta Euphemius Macedonius II Timothy I John II Epiphanius Anthimus I Menas Eutychius John III John IV Cyriacus II Thomas I Sergius I Pyrrhus Paul II Peter Thomas II John V Constantine I Theodore I George I Paul III Callinicus I Cyrus John VI Germanus I Anastasius Constantine II Nicetas I Paul IV Tarasius Nicephorus I Theodotus I Antony I John VII Methodius I Ignatius Photius I Stephen I Antony II Nicholas I Εuthymius I Stephen II Tryphon Theophylact Polyeuctus Βasil I Αntony III Nicholas II Sisinnius II Sergius II Eustathius Alexius Michael I Constantine III John VIII Cosmas I Eustratius Nicholas III John IX Leo Michael II Cosmas II Nicholas IV Theodotus II Neophytus I Constantine IV Luke Michael III Chariton Theodosius I Basil II Nicetas II Leontius Dositheus George II John X Michael IV^† Theodore II^† Maximus II^† Μanuel I^† Germanus II^† Methodius II^† Manuel II^† Arsenius^† Nicephorus II^† Germanus III Joseph I John XI Gregory II Athanasius I John XII Nephon I John XIII Gerasimus I Isaias John XIV Isidore I Callistus I Philotheus Macarius Nilus Antony IV Callistus II Matthew I Euthymius II Joseph II Metrophanes II Gregory III Athanasius II

Patriarchs of Constantinople Ottoman period (1453–1923 AD)	Gennadius II Isidore II Joasaph I Sophronius I Mark II Symeon I Dionysius I Raphael I Maximus III Nephon II Maximus IV Joachim I Pachomius I Theoleptus I Jeremias I Joannicius I Dionysius II Joasaph II Metrophanes III Jeremias II Pachomius II Theoleptus II Matthew II Gabriel I Theophanes I Meletius I Neophytus II Raphael II Cyril I Timothy II Gregory IV Anthimus II Cyril II Athanasius III Neophytus III Parthenius I Parthenius II Joannicius II Cyril III Paisius I Parthenius III Gabriel II Parthenius IV Dionysius III Clement Methodius III Dionysius IV Gerasimus II Athanasius IV James Callinicus II Neophytus IV Gabriel III Neophytus V Cyprianus Athanasius V Cyril IV Cosmas III Jeremias III (Callinicus III) Paisius II Serapheim I Neophytus VI Cyril V Callinicus IV (III) Serapheim II Joannicius III Samuel Meletius II Theodosius II Sophronius II Gabriel IV Procopius Neophytus VII Gerasimus III Gregory V Callinicus V (IV) Jeremias IV Cyril VI Eugenius II Anthimus III Chrysanthus Agathangelus Constantius I Constantius II Gregory VI Anthimus IV Anthimus V Germanus IV Meletius III Anthimus VI Cyril VII Joachim II Sophronius III Joachim III Joachim IV Dionysius V Neophytus VIII Anthimus VII Constantine V Germanus V Meletius IV

Patriarchs of Constantinople Modern period (since 1923 AD)	Gregory VII Constantine VI Basil III Photius II Benjamin Maximus V Athenagoras Demetrius Bartholomew

^† in exile at Nicaea

Persondata
Name	Athenagoras 01 Of Constantinople, Patriarch
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	6 April [O.S. 25 March] 1886
Place of birth	Vasilikón, Epirus, Greece
Date of death	July 7, 1972
Place of death	Phanar, Istanbul, Turkey

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