Archiepiskopos Athinon kai pasis Ellados CHristodoulos

Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Christodoulos (secular name Christos Paraskevaidis) was born in Xanthi in 1939. He received his Law degree from the University of Athens in 1962 and his Theology degree in 1967. He studied Byzantine Music at the Athens Conservatory. He was ordained as a deacon in 1961 and as a priest in 1965. For nine years, he served as a preacher and spiritual leader at the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Paleo Faliro, and for seven years, he was the Secretary of the Holy Synod. He participated in numerous ecclesiastical missions abroad. He was an honors graduate with a doctorate from the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki, held degrees in French and English, and was proficient in Italian and German. He authored numerous scientific and constructive books. He was elected Metropolitan of Demetrias in 1974. On April 28, 1998, he was elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. He passed away on January 28, 2008, after a long battle with cancer.