Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens (January 17, 1939 – January 28, 2008)
Born Christos Paraskevaidis in Xanthi, he was a theologian and Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Greece from 1998 until his untimely death.
At a young age, he and his family fled their homes to escape the Bulgarian occupation of WW2. In Athens he completed his education. Studying Law, he graduated from the University of Athens in 1962 and from the Theological School in 1967.
He was first a priest in Piraeus for 9 years, then a bishop in Volos for 24 years, before his election as Archbishop in 1998.
He is one of the most revered Archbishops in Greece’s history. His rapport with the Greek people and especially the youth was second to none. Tens of thousands would gather to hear him speak at rallies all over Greece, bringing thousands of Greeks back to the Church, while also being a strong advocate for maintaining Greece’s roots and traditions.
He constantly landed himself in conflicts with Greece’s corrupt politicians. Such as rejecting rapprochement efforts with the Turks, handing over more of Greece’s sovereignty to the EU, rejection of the globalist agenda, efforts to change various aspect of Greece’s education system such as Greek history, efforts to diminish the Greek Orthodox Church’s role in Greek society, to his vocal opposition of NATO’s bombing of the Serbs.
He is also credited with pressing the Catholic Pope, John Paul II, during a visit to Greece in 2001, to publicly apologise for the Catholic Crusaders sacking, destroying and looting Constantinople and murdering thousands of its inhabitants in 1204, dealing a tremendous blow to the City and the Byzantine Empire as whole.
From 1453 to 1821, 11 Patriarchs of Constantinople, 100 Bishops and 6000 more clergy, were martyred at the hands of the barbarian Ottomans. Archbishop Christodoulos was a worthy successor to that legacy
