Agathangelos of Ephesus

1. Early activity

Agathangelos of Ephesus was born in Magnisia (Manisa) of Asia Minor in 1818. He was appointed a deacon at the age of eighteen (1836) from the metropolitan of Ephesus and then three times ecumenical patriarch Anthimos VI (1845-8, 1853-5, 1871-3). Anthimos, when for the first time became a patriarch in 1845, took Agathangelos with him, promoting him in the office of the secondary to the deaconsin the ecumenical patriarchate.

After Agathangelos’ work was tested and appreciated by the patriarch, he was promoted in 1847 as grand deacon and after a year, in May 1848, he was elected in the diocese of Svornikio, in the position of the metropolitan Paisios, who was promoted to the diocese of Ganos and Chora.

2. His activity as metropolitan

After tending the abovementioned diocese, gaining the sincere respect of the (mainly Slavophone) flock, he was promoted in May 1861 in the diocese of Drama, in the position of the deposed metropolitan Meletios. On 25th May 1872, after the deposal of the metropolitan of Ephesus Paisios by Anthimos VI (the later rising to the patriarchal throne for the third time), he was elected by the Holy Synod in this diocese, where he remained for more than twenty years until 1895.

He was a member of the synod many times, since every contemporary ecumenical patriarch appreciated his great administrative experience as well as his prudence. He was appointed a locum tenens of the ecumenical throne twice, after the death of Ioakeim II (1878) and after the resignation of Ioakeim III (1883). In 1878 he also became the trustee of the then ill Ioakeim II. He also became the trustee of the Chalki Theological School many times.

As mentioned by George Papadopoulos, Agathangelos “after tending three provinces of the ecumenical throne in godliness and prosperity for 46 years and leaving traces of a proper evangelic shepherd in these”1 died on 25th April 1895 in Constantinople (Istanbul). The next day he was buried by the ecumenical patriarch Neophytos VIII and the Holy Synod. The funeral speech was read by the celebrated preacher and professor at Chalki Theological School (later director of the Theological School of the Cross in Jerusalem) Germanos Vasilakis.

1. Παπαδόπουλος, Γ.Ι., Η Σύγχρονος Ιεραρχία της Ορθοδόξου Ανατολικής Εκκλησίας (Athens 1895) pp. 446-447, n. 132.