Archbishop Demetrios (born Demetrios Trakatellis; el, Δημήτριος Τρακατέλλης) is a former elder archbishop of the

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, headquartered in New York City, is an eparchy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its current primate is Archbishop Elpidophoros of America. Archbishop On May 11, 2019, the church's Hol ...

and

Exarch An exarch (; from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'', meaning “leader”) was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical. In the late Roman Empire and ea ...

of the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and

Pacific Oceans The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. He resigned from this position in 2019.

Biography

Demetrios was born in

Thessaloniki, Greece Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

on 1 February 1928 to Georgia and Christos Trakatellis. He graduated in 1946 valedictorian from the Experimental School of the University of Thessaloniki. He attended the School of Theology at the

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

, graduating ''summa cum laude'' in 1950. He became a deacon in 1960 and was ordained as a priest in 1964. He moved to the United States in 1965, attending the

Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) is the largest of the twelve graduate schools of Harvard University. Formed in 1872, GSAS is responsible for most of Harvard's graduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natura ...

and obtaining his PhD in 1972. He later returned to the University of Athens, obtaining his

Doctor of Theology Doctor of Theology ( la, Doctor Theologiae, abbreviated DTh, ThD, DTheol, or Dr. theol.) is a terminal degree in the academic discipline of theology. The ThD, like the ecclesiastical Doctor of Sacred Theology, is an advanced research degree equiva ...

degree in 1977. He served as auxiliary bishop to the Archbishop of Athens from 1967, and in 1968 declined to serve as

metropolitan bishop In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis. Originally, the term referred to the b ...

Attika Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Sea, ...

and

Megaris :''This is also the ancient Greek name of a small island off Naples, site of the Castel dell'Ovo.'' Megaris ( grc, Μεγαρίς) was a small but populous state of ancient Greece, west of Attica and north of Corinthia, whose inhabitants were adv ...

due to the political upheaval then taking place in Greece. He was Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies and Christian Origins at

Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology Hellenic College Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (HCHC) is an Orthodox Christian liberal arts college and seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts. Its mission is to educate individuals for life and service in the Orthodox Christian c ...

in Brookline, Massachusetts, from 1983 to 1993, and was a visiting professor at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

in 1984–85 and 1988–89. He returned to Greece in 1993 to serve at the

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Athens The Archbishopric of Athens ( el, Ιερά Αρχιεπισκοπή Αθηνών) is a Greek Orthodox archiepiscopal see based in the city of Athens, Greece. It is the senior see of Greece, and the seat of the autocephalous Church of Greece. It ...

. On 18 September 1999, Elder Archbishop Demetrios was enthroned at the

Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity The Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, at 319–337 East 74th Street on the Upper East Side in New York City, New York, is a Neo-Byzantine-style Greek Orthodox church. It serves as the national cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese ...

Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

of the

. The cathedral on New York City's

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

serves as the national cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and is the seat of the Archbishop. On 26 November 2015, the

was elevated to the rank of Gerontiki Eparchy (an eparchy headed by a Geron/Elder hierarch) of the Ecumenical Throne, led by Demetrios, with the style of His Eminence Geron Archbishop Demetrios of America.

Academy and Holy Synod

Demetrios was elected as a member of the Academy of Athens in November 2002 and was inducted on 14 November 2003. He was elected to the

Holy Synod In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox C ...

of the

Ecumenical Patriarchate The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

on 19 February 2004. Archbishop Demetrios delivered invocations at the Democratic National Convention on 27 August 2008 and the Republican National Convention on 4 September 2008. He also delivered the benediction at the Presidential Inaugural Luncheon on 21 January 2013.

Resignation as Archbishop of America

Demetrios, whose leadership has been criticized by some as leading the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America into "financial, administrative, and spiritual bankruptcy," had been pressured three times beforehand by

Patriarch Bartholomew Bartholomew I ( el, Βαρθολομαῖος Αʹ, , tr, I. Bartholomeos; born 29 February 1940) is the 270th archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch, since 2 November 1991. In accordance with his title, he is regarded as the ''pr ...

, the

Ecumenical Patriarch The ecumenical patriarch ( el, Οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης, translit=Oikoumenikós Patriárchēs) is the archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), New Rome and '' primus inter pares'' (first among equals) among the heads of th ...

, to "voluntarily resign." After refusing each time, Bartholomew denied Demetrios another extension. On 4 May 2019, Demetrios submitted his letter of resignation as Archbishop of America, effective on 9 May. His letter of resignation was made public on the scheduled date; hours later Bishop Andonios (Paropoulos) of Phasiane made Demetrios' letter of resignation as Chancellor of the Archdiocese of America public. On 11 May, Metropolitan Elpidophoros of Bursa was unanimously elected to succeed Demetrios, and Demetrios' resignation as Archbishop of America was made official.

Writings

Demetrios is the author of six books as well as hundreds of articles and essays published in various periodicals. * ''Presence of the Holy Spirit'' (1984) * ''Authority and Passion'' (1987) * ''The Transcendent God of Eugnostos'' (1991) * ''Christ, the Pre-existing God'' (1992) * ''The Fathers Interpret'' (1996) * ''A Call to Faith'' (2004)

Family

His brother,

Antonios Trakatellis Antonios Trakatellis ( el, Αντώνιος Τρακατέλλης) (born 4 September 1931 in Thessaloniki) is a Greek Member of the European Parliament (MEP), and an academic biochemist. He was elected on the New Democracy ticket and sits with the ...

, is a

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...

MEP for Greece and former Vice-President of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

References

External links

*
Archbishop Demetrios of America playlist
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΣ ΓΕΡΩΝ ΑΜΕΡΙΚΗΣ' ΑΠΟ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ Ο ΑΜΕΡΙΚΗΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΣ ΜΕ ΑΠΟΦΑΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΣΥΝΟΔΟΥ"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Demetrios of America 1928 births Living people Clergy from Thessaloniki Greek Macedonians Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century Eastern Orthodox archbishops National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni Archbishops of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America 21st-century Eastern Orthodox archbishops Greek expatriates in the United States Greek expatriate bishops