 He is honoured as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with his feast day held on September 13.Meletius was born in Candia (Heraklion) in the island of Crete, at the time capital of the Venetian Kingdom of Candia in 1549, and he studied classical philology, philosophy and medicine in Padua.He became "protosyncellus" of the Patriarch of Alexandria Silvester, at whose death he succeeded on 5 August 1590.