He passed away after battling a long illness. For 16 years he was at the head of the oldest autocephalous Christian reality. He opposed a secularized conception of the Church. He resumed relations with Rome, echoing the words of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Istanbul () – After a long battle against an incurable disease, the Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostom II, head of the oldest of the autocephalous Christian churches, died yesterday morning, as declared by the 4th ecumenical synod.
Born Herodotos Demetriou on April 10, 1941, His Beatitude embraced monasticism at a young age and later attended the prestigious Faculty of Theology in Athens. In 1978, Archbishop Makarios III appointed him as head of the ancient diocese of Paphos, where the apostles Paul, Matthew and Barnabas preached.
After the death of his predecessor Crisóstomo I, in 2006 he remained on the list of candidates for the archiepiscopal throne, although as a outsider: had obtained the least number of preferences, as can be deduced from the primary vote of the faithful (men and simple clerics), according to the ancient tradition of the Church of Cyprus.
To everyone’s great surprise, the synod then elected him as the new Archbishop. After centuries of stagnation, this ancient Church gained new life during its 16 years of mandate, moving away from a secularized conception, product of the geopolitical pressures of various States.
Chrysostom II reconstructed the statute of the synod of the Church of Cyprus. In this way he restored dignity to his clergy, who until then depended on political influences, and at the same time founded the Cyprus School of Theology for the training of clerics and laity.
What mattered to him was the unity of the Church as the true body of Christ and not as an instrument of personal ambition. He was one of the most active supporters of the work of the Pan-Orthodox Synod of Crete (2016), and worked intensely for the unity of the Church, never claiming privileges.
Regarding the Ukrainian question, he recognized the autocephaly granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, provoking the wrath of the pro-Russian group in his own synod. However, Chrysostom II always tried to reconcile the schism with the Russian world and beyond: he was convinced that the Russian Church was succumbing to a secularized conception.
In this sense, he took as a reference the Synod of Constantinople of 1872, which had condemned “philetism”, the prevalence of a nationalist conception in the Church of Christ. For this reason, he also considered the Turkish Cypriots as brothers from the same land of God.
During his years at the head of the Church of Cyprus, Chrysostom II resumed relations with the sister Church of Rome: for his ecumenical efforts, Pope Benedict XVI (in June 2010) and Pope Francis (in December 2021) visited Cyprus . He also endorsed the words of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who considers Rome and Constantinople to be Siamese Churches.
Bartholomew will be present at his funeral, a first for an ecumenical patriarch.
