Metropolitan of Athens

Archbishop of Athens and All Greece
Archbishopric
orthodox
Incumbent: Ieronymos II since 7 February 2008
Country	Greece
Diocese	Athens
Cathedral	Cathedral of Annunciation
First incumbent	Dionysius the Areopagite (as Bishop of Athens)
Formation	1st century, but current establishment from 1833
Website	http://www.archdiocese.gr/

The Archbishopric of Athens (Greek: 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 Church of Greece. Its incumbent (since 2008) is Ieronymos II of Athens. As the head of the Church of Greece, the holder is styled Archbishop of Athens and All Greece (Αρχιεπίσκοπος Αθηνών και πάσης Ελλάδος).

As with most of Greece, the Church of Athens was established by St. Paul during his second missionary journey, when he preached at the Areopagus, probably in 50 or 51 AD. According to the Acts of the Apostles (17:16–34), after the sermon, a number of people became followers of Paul, thus forming the kernel of the Church in Athens. Dionysius the Areopagite was the first Bishop of Athens.

With the Christianization of the Roman Empire and the establishment of a regular Church hierarchy, Athens became a suffragan see of the Metropolis of Corinth, the metropolitan see of the Roman province of Achaea. As with most of Greece, however, the old pagan religion continued for considerable time. Despite imperial prohibitions during the 4th century, there is considerable evidence for a flourishing pagan culture up to the end of the century, and it was probably only the devastation of the Gothic raids in 395–397 that dealt a first hard blow to the ancient pagan culture. The last pagan vestiges in Athens itself survived until the 6th century and the closure of the city's Neoplatonic Academy by Justinian I in 529.

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Wikipedia