Archbishop Ieronymos I of Athens
Encyclopedia
Ieronymos I was a Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 monk and theologian, who served as the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and as such the primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece in 1967–1973, during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974.

Life

He was born Ieronymos Kotsonis (Ιερώνυμος Κοτσώνης) to a poor family in the village of Ysternia, the island of Tinos
Tinos
Tinos is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. In antiquity, Tinos was also known as Ophiussa and Hydroessa . The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos...

. His father died three months before his birth, and his mother was soon forced to go to Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 and work as a cook to sustain her family. Thus Ieronymos grew up with relatives until the age of 2.5, when he went to Athens. He studied at the Rizareios Ecclesiastical School and continued his studies at the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens. After graduation, he went for further studies to Germany (in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

) and Britain.

Through his spiritual father, the archimandrite
Archimandrite
The title Archimandrite , primarily used in the Eastern Orthodox and the Eastern Catholic churches, originally referred to a superior abbot whom a bishop appointed to supervise...

 Seraphim Papakostas, he became a protégé of the then-Archbishop of Athens, Chrysanthus
Archbishop Chrysanthus of Athens
Archbishop Chrysanthus of Athens , born Charilaos Filippidis , was the Archbishop of Athens and all Greece between 1938 and 1941He was born in 1881 in Gratini, Thrace, then part of the Ottoman Empire...

. He became a monk and, on 4 January 1939, a deacon
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...

. He rose quickly in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, being appointed second secretary of the Holy Synod, becoming presbyter
Presbyter
Presbyter in the New Testament refers to a leader in local Christian congregations, then a synonym of episkopos...

 and archimandrite on 23 June 1940. As a close associate of Chrysanthus, he was dismissed from his secretary to the Holy Synod by the collaborationist government during the Axis Occupation of Greece, and spent the Occupation as chaplain of the Evangelismos Hospital. After the occupation, he submitted a dissertation for a position of lecturer at the Theological Faculty, but later withdrew it after quarrelling with his teachers. On 29 September 1949 he was appointed head priest of the Royal Palace. In 1959 finally he was elected as Professor of Canon Law in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the largest Greek university, and the largest university in the Balkans. It was named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stageira, Chalcidice, about 55 km east of Thessaloniki, in Central Macedonia...

.

Ieronymos was elected as Archbishop of Athens on 14 May 1967 after the forced resignation of his predecessor, Chrysostomos II
Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Athens
Chrysostomos II was Archbishop of Athens and All Greece from 14 February 1962 to 11 May 1967.He was born in Aydin in the Ottoman Empire in 1880....

, following the military coup d'état of 21 April 1967. Due to his well-known staunchly conservative and anti-communist views, he was widely seen as nominee of the junta's leadership, many of whom had ties to para-religious organizations. He continued to serve under the junta until his resignation on 15 December 1973. His, and by extension the whole Church of Greece's close cooperation with the junta during his primacy continues to be a subject of controversy.

Following his resignation, he retired to his birthplace. He died on 15 November 1988.
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