A brief overview of the life of Meletios Metaxakis

1/17 In 1889, 18-year-old Meletios participated in some kind of insurgency against the Turks in his native Crete. It was because of this that he moved to Jerusalem. He was tonsured a monk and made a hierodeacon 3 years later.

2/17 In 1900 he became the secretary to the Holy Synod of Jerusalem. In 1906, he was sent to Cyprus as part of an inter-Orthodox delegation attempting to resolve the Cypriot succession crisis.

3/17 There were only two bishops in the entire Church of Cyprus, both named Kyrillos, fighting for the throne.) The EP, Alexandria, and Jerusalem sent reps to try to address the problem. Meletios was the Jerusalem rep.

4/17 In the midst of that, he was basically kicked out of Jerusalem in 1908 because of a conflict with the Patriarch. Meletios seems to have opposed more Arab involvement in the Patriarchate, which the Patriarch was pushing for out of fear following the Young Turk Revolution

5/17 So then Meletios moved to Cyprus and was elected Bp of Kition in 1910. In 1912, he was a candidate to become Ecu Patriarch, but he wasn't elected and he remained in Cyprus until 1918, when his relative, Greek Prime Minister Venizelos, put him on the throne of Athens.

6/17 A few months later he left for America to organize the Greek Archdiocese. After a few months he went back to Athens & was deposed in 1920 after King Constantine returned to power. His dispute w/ the next Abp of Athens actually went before the Patriarch of Alexandria.

7/17 He basically fled to the USA in Feb 1921, organized the GOA with no real authority to do so, and then was elected Ecumenical Patriarch in November. He was enthroned in February 1922, but in between the Ho(ly Synod of Athens defrocked him (he ignored it).

8/17 In just 20 months as EP, he created the modern Canon 28 "barbarian lands" concept, recognized Anglican orders as valid, took @goarch into the EP, created numerous autocephalous / autonomous churches, & called the Pan-Orthodox Congress that set up the new calendar.

9/17 He was forced out of Istanbul in July 1923, formally resigned that fall, and then laid low for a couple years. In Sept 1925 the Patriarch of Alexandria died while on his way home from a big ecumenical gathering in Stockholm. Meletios was a top candidate to succeed him.

10/17 There was a preliminary election in Feb 1926 in which Meletios placed 3rd, but he won the main election -- by a paper-thin margin -- in June 1926 and immediately declared that Alexandria should be the new first among equals.

11/17 In June 1927 he deposed a priest named Basil Lebentes, who was in Morocco. Lebentes appealed to the EP, which claimed jurisdiction over Morocco. Meletios responded by claiming jurisdiction over all Africa for Alexandria. Lebentes fled to the USA.

12/17 Several years later Meletios and Athenagoras -- by then Abp of America -- had a huge fight over Lebentes, whom Athenagoras wanted to put in charge of a parish in NYC despite the fact that Meletios had deposed him.

13/17 In June 1928 he banned the monks from Sinai from serving in their Cairo metochion. This dispute was resolved in 1932, when Meletios and the Abp of Sinai signed an agreement that basically ended centuries of ambiguity about Sinai's status.

14/17 In 1930 he led the Orthodox delegation to the Lambeth Conference. Details here: http://anglicanhistory.org/orthodoxy/lambeth1930.html

15/17 In 1931 he was embroiled in a big controversy in his patriarchate because he wanted to strip the laity of their role in patriarchal elections. In October a newspaper published a secret memo Meletios had sent to Venizelos asking for help overcoming public discontent.

16/17 While this was happening the Patriarch of Jerusalem died & Meletios was a top candidate to replace him. His selling point was that the Anglicans would pay off Jerusalem's debts in return for Meletios as patriarch& major concessions regarding rights over the holy places

17/17 From 1931-35 Meletios was campaigning to become Patriarch of Jerusalem, but in the end, on July 22, 1935, he lost the election. He died a week later.