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In 1938 he was elected archbishop of [[Athens]], taking the name Damaskinos. [[Ioannis Metaxas]], dictator of Greece at the time, objected to Damaskinos and forced the cancellation of his election, and the appointment of Metropolitan Chrisanthos to the post. After the 1941 German invasion of Greece and the fall of the Greek government, the Metropolitans who had elected Damaskinos seized the opportunity to eject Chrisanthos from the throne (with German agreement, as the latter had refused to be present at the oath-taking ceremony of the quisling Prime Minister [[Georgios Tsolakoglou]]), and Damaskinos was reinstalled.

The Archbishop of Athens was the spiritual leader of the [[Greek Orthodox]] people of Athens, and Damaskinos worked very hard to live up to his position during those hard times. He frequently clashed with the German authorities and the quisling government. In 1943, the Germans began the persecution of the [[Greek Jews]], and their deportations to concentration camps. Damaskinos formally protested the actions of the occupational authorities, even at the threat of execution by the local SS commander. The churches under his jurisdiction were also ordered quietly by Damaskinos to distribute baptismal certificates to Jews fleeing the Nazis, saving thousands of Romaniote Jews in and around Athens.