His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I (Dimitrios
Archontonis) was born in Hagioi Theodoroi, Imbros island (Gokceada - Turkey), on
the 29th of February 1940. He attended Primary School in Imbros and High School
(Zografion Lycee) in Constantinople (Istanbul). He received his Diploma of
Theology from the Theological School of Chalki (Hons) 1961, and entered the
Priesthood in Imbros as a Deacon on 13th of August 1961. For two years, from
1961 to 1963, he fulfilled his military obligations as a Turkish citizen,
serving as an Officer in the Turkish Army.
As an Ecumenical Patriarchate's scholar from 1963 to 1968, he
undertook postgraduate studies at the Ecumenical Institute of Eastern Studies in
Rome, the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey in Switzerland and at the University of
Munich, specialising in Canon Law. In 1968, he gained his Doctorate with the
Institute of Rome at the Gregorian University, submitting his thesis on
"Concerning the codification of the Holy Canons and Canonical Decrees in
the Orthodox Church". On returning to Constantinople in 1968 he served as
Sub-Dean of the Greek-Orthodox Theological School of Chalki. He was ordained a
Priest in Constantinople on the 19th of October 1969, and six months later he
was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.
In 1972, Archimandrite Bartholomeos was appointed Director of
the Private Patriarchal Office of his predecessor Patriarch Demetrios I, of
blessed memory. In 1973, he was unanimously elected, by the Holy Synod of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, as Metropolitan of Philadelphia and consecrated as a
Bishop at Christmas 1973 in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George,
Constantinople. Since March 1974, he served the Church in the capacity of a
Member of the Holy Synod. On the 14th of January 1990, he was elected
Metropolitan of the historic city of Chalcedon. On the 2nd of November 1991,
after the late Patriarch Demetrios I slept in the Lord, the Holy Synod
unanimously elected Metropolitan Bartholomeos as Archbishop of Constantinople -
New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch.
His All-Holiness is a fluent speaker of Greek, Turkish,
Italian, Latin, English, French and German. He is founding-member of the Society
of the Canon Law of the Eastern Churches and served as its Vice-President for
several years. For 15 years (8 years as Vice-President), he served as a member
of the Faith and Order Committee of the World Council of Churches and
participated in three General Assemblies of the W.C.C. (the 4th, Uppsala 1968,
the 6th, Vancouver 1983, and the 7th, Canberra 1991). He was elected a Member of
the Central Committee and the Executive Committee of the W.C.C. at the 7th
Assembly.
Patriarch Bartholomeos I has paid official Apostolic visits to
the Holy Mount Athos (Greece), to the Church of Crete (Greece), to the
Patriarchates of Alexandria (Egypt), Antioch (Syria and Lebanon), Jerusalem,
Moscow and all Russia, Belgrade and all Serbia, Bucharest and all Rumania
(twice), Sofia and all Bulgaria, Tbilisi and all Georgia, to the Orthodox and
the Lutheran Churches of Finland, as well as to the Eastern Orthodox Church of
Ethiopia, the Lutheran Church of Sweden, the Roman Catholic Church (Vatican),
the Ecumenical Council of Churches, the Roman Catholic and the Evangelical
Churches of Germany, the Anglican Church (U.K.), the Roman Catholic Church of
France and several Sees of his own Ecumenical Throne. He convened extraordinary
meetings of the Heads of all the Autocephalous and Autonomous Orthodox Churches
in Constantinople in 1992 and on the historic Greek island of Patmos in 1995.
Additionally, he convened special meetings of all the Hierarchs of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, in both 1992 and 1994, in Constantinople.
He has been awarded Doctorates of Theology (H.C.) by the
University of Athens, the Theological Academy of Moscow and the Holy Cross
Theological College of Boston U.S.A. Also awarded Doctorates of Philosophy (H.C.)
by the City University of London, the University of Crete, and the Department of
the Environment of the Aegean University, Mytilene. He is also a Fellow of the
Orthodox Academy of Crete and an honorary member of the Pro Oriente Institute in
Vienna.
His All-Holiness accepted a special invitation from the
President of the European Parliament and addressed its members in 1994. He has
participated in numerous inter-Orthodox, inter-denominational and international
meetings, conventions and congresses. He takes a particular interest in
environmental issues and has initiated a number of strategies for the protection
of Creation.
For more information: www.patriarchate.org/
