Seraphim Tikas

In memoriam

Religious Figure. He was recognized as a controversial head of Greece's Orthodox Church during the 20th century. He enrolled in the Theological School of the University of Athens in 1936 and graduated in 1940. During his second year in 1938, he became a monk in the Pendeli Monastery. Seraphim of Athens was ordained a deacon by the then Metropolitan Bishop of Corinth and by Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens, and served at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Neo Iraklio. In 1942 he was ordained a priest and an archimandrite, also by Archbishop Damaskinos and served as parish priest at the Church of St Luke in Patisia. During the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II, he worked in soup kitchens, orphanages and schools before joining the resistance fighters in the mountains in the ranks of EDES under general Napoleon Zervas. He served as secretary of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, and in 1949, was elected Metropolitan Bishop of Arta and in 1958 was transferred to Ioannina. He was elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece on January 13, 1974, succeeding Archbishop Ieronymos I. As prelate of the Church of Greece, he visited the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Antioch, Moscow, Sofia and Belgrade. When Premier Andreas Papandreou tried to expropriate the church's vast land holdings in the 1980s, Seraphim protested and won, retaliating by excommunicating seven government officials from the church. He had difficulties with the Roman Catholic Church. During his 24 years as church leader, he swore in six Presidents of Greece and numerous Prime Ministers. He died of renal disease complications.

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