Archbishop Chrysostomos I

Archbishop Chrysostomos I, born as Christoforos Aristodimou (27 September 1927 – 22 December 2007) was the Archbishop of Cyprus from 1977 to 2006. He was born in the village of Statos in Paphos, Cyprus. By the scholarship of Kykkos Monastery, where he served as a monk, he finished the Pancyprian Gymnasium (High School) in 1950 and he studied theology and literature in the University of Athens. He then returned to Kykkos Monastery and was ordained deacon in February 1951. In October 1961 he was ordained priest and returned to the Pancyprian Gymnasium where he taught theology for 5 years.

In 1968 he was elected bishop of Constantia before becoming Bishop of Paphos in July 1973. On 12 November 1977 he was elected Archbishop of Cyprus in succession to the late President and Archbishop of Cyprus, Makarios III who had died the same year.

In April 2000 he suffered a severe head injury when he fell from the staircase of the Archiepiscopal Palace and never recovered. In 2004 it became known that he suffered from Alzheimer's disease and he fell into a coma the following year.

He remained Head of the Church of Cyprus due to lack of legislation in church's laws for cases of incapacity. In early 2006 the Cypriot bishops asked the Patriarch of Constantinople to convoke a Panorthodox Synod to decide what was to be done since his condition was irreversible and he was still in a coma.

A Pan-Orthodox Synod was convoked by Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople in Chambésy (Switzerland) in May 2006 and it was decided that Chrysostomos was to be removed from office due to serious health problems, while retaining his honorific titles. Bishop of Paphos Chrysostomos was elected as locum tenens and Archiepiscopal elections were proclaimed for 24 September 2006. Archbishop Chrysostomos II became the new Archbishop of Cyprus.

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