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Archbishop Christodoulos Remembered Locally

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: January 28, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS – A memorial service and Divine Liturgy will take place, locally, for the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, who died of cancer Monday at his home in Athens. He was 69.

"People in Tarpon Springs have a love for this man just as if he lived here. It's a very sad day for everyone who knew him," said the Rev. Father Michael Eaccarino, spiritual leader of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

During his decade of service Archbishop Christodoulos is credited with attracting members back to the church.

The illness of the late Christodoulos, Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece, was first diagnosed in June of last year. In August, he traveled to Miami with the hope of receiving a liver transplant, but it was found that the disease had spread.

A memorial service is planned for Friday and Sunday morning services at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs.

The Rev. Eaccarino said the Archbishop placed serving the church before getting early treatment for the disease.

It's a great loss for the church not just in Greece but everywhere, he added. The Archbishop was a beacon of the Orthodox faith. He upheld the traditions and accepted everyone into the church, the Rev. Eaccarino continued. When he spoke you could see the love for humanity in his eyes, the father said. He was everything to all people, as St. Paul suggested.

His words were uplifting and fostered a spiritual renewal every time he spoke, the reverend said.
President George Bush said the late Archbishop "was well-known as an articulate voice of the Orthodox faith, for his engagement in inter-religious dialogue and his promotion of social programs to help the vulnerable."

On the Greek Orthodox Church Web site, His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios of America, said: "The passing of the late Archbishop of Athens and all Greece, Christodoulos of blessed memory, saddens us deeply...With his departure from this world the Church has lost an exceptional and highly esteemed Hierarch, as well as a brilliant champion of Orthodoxy and of the universal values of the Hellenic cultural tradition."

"I had the special honor to know him from the time he attended high school to appreciate his dynamism, his kindness, his intellect and his great offering to the Church in important areas such as the divine worship, pastoral and social care, as well as inter-Orthodox and inter-Christian relations," said Archbishop Demetrios.

"I pray fervently to the Lord for the repose of the soul of the distinguished and ever-memorable brother and concelebrant, the late Archbishop Christodoulos, in the tabernacles of the saints and of the righteous."

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