SPYROU, ATHENAGORAS

SPYROU, ATHENAGORAS, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch (25 March 1886-July 1972). Graduated from the Orthodox Theological Seminary, Halki, Istanbul, in 1910, he was ordained to the diaconate, later serving as general secretary for the Athens Archdiocese. He was elected Metropolitan of Corfu and Praxos. From 1931 to 1948 he served as archbishop (exarch [q.v.]) of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America (q.v.), residing in New York City. As archbishop he healed a schism dividing the Greek church there and established a single archdiocese. He became the two hundred eighty-sixth Archbishop of Constantinople in 1948 and was particularly well known for his active involvement in the ecumenical movement (q.v.), an activity highlighted by his much-publicized meeting with Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem in 1964 and the mutual lifting of the anathemas of 1054 in the next year. Both events generated controversy in the Orthodox world, with some hailing the perceived end of separation and others seeing in it the betrayal of the patriarch’s trust. The debate is still very much alive today. Several institutions have been named for the late patriarch, including the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute (q.v.) in Berkeley, also under Constantinople’s (q.v.) jurisdiction.