His Eminence Iakovos |
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Archbishop of North and South America | |
See | New York, New York, USA |
Installed | April 1, 1959 |
Term ended | July 29, 1996 |
Predecessor | Michael |
Successor | Spyridon |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Demetrios Coucouzes |
Born |
Imbros, Ottoman Empire |
July 29, 1911
Died | April 10, 2005 Stamford, Connecticut, USA |
(aged 93)
Buried | Brookline, Massachusetts, USA |
Nationality | American (naturalized) |
Parents | Athanasios and Maria Coucouzes |
Alma mater | Theological School of Halki |
Styles of Archbishop Iakovos |
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Reference style | His Eminence |
Spoken style | Your Eminence |
Alternative style | None |
Archbishop Iakovos or Jacob (Greek: Ιάκωβος; born Demetrios Koukouzis (Δημήτριος Κουκούζης); July 29, 1911 – April 10, 2005) was the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America (now the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America) from 1959 until his resignation in 1996.
Born on the island of Imvros, Ottoman Empire on July 29, 1911 to Maria and Athanasios Koukouzis, he had two sisters Virginia and Chrysanthi and a brother Panagiotis. He enrolled at age 15 in the Ecumenical Patriarchal Theological School of Halki. After graduating with high honors, Demetrios Koukouzis was ordained deacon in 1934, taking the ecclesiastical name Iakovos. Five years after his ordination, Deacon Iakovos received an invitation to serve as Archdeacon to the late Archbishop Athenagoras, the Primate of North and South America, who later (1949–72) became Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
Ordained a priest in 1940 in Lowell, Massachusetts, he served at St. George Church, Hartford, Connecticut, while teaching and serving as assistant dean of the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Theological School, then in Pomfret, Connecticut and now in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1941, he was named Preacher at Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City and in the summer of 1942 served as temporary Dean of St. Nicholas Church in St. Louis, Missouri. He was appointed Dean of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Boston in 1942 and remained there until 1954. In 1945 he earned a Master of Sacred Theology Degree from Harvard University.