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Meletius Metaxakis

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His given name was ''''Emmanuel Metaxakis'''. He was born on [[September 21]], [[1871]] in the village of Parsas on the island of [[Crete]]. He entered the Seminary of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem in [[1889]]. He was tonsured with the name Meletius and ordained a hierodeacon in [[1892]]. He completed the theological courses at Holy Cross and was assigned as secretary to the Holy Synod in Jerusalem by Patriarch Damianos in [[1900]]. Meletius was evicted from the Holy Land by Patriarch Damianos, along with the then administrator Chrysostomos, later Archbishop of Athens in [[1908]] for "activity against the Holy Sepulcher." Meletius Metaxakis was then elected Metropolitan of Kition in [[1910]]. In the years before the war Metropolitan Meletius began successful talks in New York with representatives of the Episcopal Church of America, with the intention of "expanding relations between the two Churches."
After the death of [[Patriarch Joachim III]] on [[June 13]], [[1912]], Meletius was nominated as a candidate for the Patriarchal Throne in Constantinople. However, the Holy Synod decided that Meletius could not canonically be registered as a candidate. With the support of his political allies and acquaintances he was uncanonically elevated to the position of [[Archbishop of Athens ]] in [[1918]], but after the usual political changes he was deprived of his see.
Metaxakis was one of the most fascinating characters in Orthodox church history. He was the only man successively to lead four autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Churches: those of Cyprus, Greece, Constantinople (Turkey), and Alexandria (Egypt). On the basis of a 1908 decree of the Ecumenical Patriarch that the independent "trustee" Greek parishes in America should receive episcopal oversight from the Church of Greece, Metaxakis journeyed to America in the summer of 1918 to survey the situation. Three months later he returned to Greece and appointed Bishop Alexander of Rodostolou as his resident American legate. Alexander was charged with the unenviable task of initiating canonical order among the independent Greek parishes throughout North America.
[[Category:Ecumenical Patriarchs|Metaxakis,Meletios]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Athens|Metaxakis,Meletios]]
[[Category:1871 births|Metaxakis,Meletios]]
[[Category:1935 deaths|Metaxakis,Meletios]]

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