Early Life and Career
Christodoulos was born in Xanthi, Thrace, Northern Greece in 1939. His civil name was Christos Paraskevaidis. When he was two years old, his family moved to Athens to escape German and Bulgarian occupation of the area during World War II. His father subsequently returned to Xanthi following the war and ran a successful bid for mayor.
Christodoulos attended high school at the Roman Catholic Marist Leonteion Lyceum of Athens. He then studied law at the University of Athens, graduating in 1962, after having been ordained a deacon in the Orthodox Church in 1961.
He also attended a graduate school at the University of Athens for a degree in theology. Christodoulos was ordained a priest in 1965 and graduated from the School of Theology in 1967. He worked as a parish priest in Palaio Faliro, a suburb of Athens, between 1965 and 1974. During that time he also became Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. In 1974, he was elected bishop of Demetrias in Volos, Thessaly, a post which he held until his election as Archbishop of Athens in 1998.
Christodoulos was a Doctor of Theology, had a degree in French and English, and also spoke Italian and German. He was the author of a number of theological books and received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Craiova and the University of Iasi. Due to Christodoulos' attending a Catholic high school, he felt open to dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic churches having experienced both sides.
Read more about this topic: Archbishop Christodoulos Of Athens
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