On this day, 64 years ago, Imbros offered the Church a pious and gifted son who was destined to become a spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians and to be distinguished as one of the most eminent and respected figures of the global spiritual sphere.
This refers to 21-year-old Dimitrios Archontonis, from the village of Agioi Theodoroi, who on 13 August 1961, ascended the first step of the Holy Priesthood and was given the monastic name Bartholomew, in honour of Bartholomew Koutloumousianos (1772–1851), a hieromonk and teacher of the Nation, also originally from Imbros.
The ordination to the diaconate of the virtuous and cultivated young man — who had just graduated with highest honours from the Holy Theological School of Halki — was celebrated in the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Theotokos, by his spiritual father, Metropolitan Meliton Hatzis of Imbros and Tenedos, later Metropolitan of Chalcedon.
Since then, the young Deacon worked devotedly to develop his talents and gifts, and in 1969 he was deemed worthy to receive the second degree of the Holy Priesthood. In 1972, having been appointed Archimandrite, he assumed the position of Director of the Private Office of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios. The following year, he was elevated to Metropolitan of Philadelphia. In 1990, he was unanimously elected to succeed the late Elder Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon. On 22 October 1991, following the repose of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, he was unanimously elected Ecumenical Patriarch. On 2 November of that same year, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew officially began his long and illustrious ministry on the Apostolic and Ecumenical Throne of Constantinople with his enthronement at the Patriarchal Church in the Phanar.
