The late Metropolitan of Edessa, Kallinikos, has been ranked among the saints of the Orthodox Church.
The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, during yesterday’s meeting at the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, chaired by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, decided on the canonization of the late Kallinikos, whose memory will be celebrated on August 8.
Saint Kallinkios, whose secular name is Dimitrios Poulos, was born in Sitaralona, Agrinio, in 1919. He studied theology at the Theological School of Athens. He was ordained a deacon and then a presbyter in 1957 by his brother, Metropolitan Konstantinos of Didymoteicho.
He served as secretary, lay preacher and protosyncellus at the Metropolis of Aitolia and Akarnania. On June 25, 1967, he was ordained Bishop of Edessa and Pella. On June 22, 1967, the Holy Synod decided that the Diocese of Almopia, which was under the jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Florina, was transferred to the Metropolis of Edessa.
The ordination took place at the Church of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite in Athens. The ordination was performed by Metropolitan Dionysios of Trikki and Stagoi, along with Metropolitans Meletios of Kythira, Konstantinos of Didymoteicho, Synesios of Kassandreia, and Theoklitos of Aitolia and Akarnania.
He fell asleep in the Lord in Athens on August 7, 1984.
