Metropolis of Ioannina Μητρόπολις Ιωαννίνων |
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Cathedral church of St. Athanasios
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Location | |
Country | Greece (historically Ottoman Empire, Byzantine Empire) |
Ecclesiastical province | Ioannina |
Information | |
Rite | Byzantine Rite |
Established | 9th century (as bishopric), 1318 (as metropolis) |
Cathedral | Church of St. Athanasios, Ioannina |
Current leadership | |
Parent church | Patriarchate of Constantinople/Church of Greece |
Metropolitan | Maximos Papagiannis |
Website | |
http://www.imioanninon.gr/main/ |
The Metropolis of Ioannina (Greek: Ιερά Μητρόπολις Ιωαννίνων, Iera Mitropolis Ioanninon) is a Greek Orthodox diocese centred on the city of Ioannina, in the Epirus of Greece. As one of the "New Lands", it belongs formally to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, but is administered by the Church of Greece. As of June 2014[update], the Metropolitan of Ioannina is Maximos Papagiannis.
The exact time of Ioannina's foundation is unknown. It is commonly identified with an unnamed new, "well-fortified" city, recorded by the historian Procopius (De Aedificiis, IV.1.39–42) as having been built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) for the inhabitants of ancient Euroia, but archaeological evidence for this is lacking; indeed, early 21st-century excavations have brought to light fortifications dating to the Hellenistic period (4th–3rd centuries BC), the course of which was largely followed by the later Castle of Ioannina.
The name Ioannina appears for the first time in 879, in the acts of the Fourth Council of Constantinople, which refer to one Zacharias, Bishop of Ioannine, a suffragan of Naupaktos. After the Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria, in 1020 Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) subordinated the local bishopric to the Archbishopric of Ohrid. In the treaty of partition of the Byzantine lands after the Fourth Crusade, Ioannina was promised to the Venetians, but in the event, it became part of the new state of Epirus, founded by Michael I Komnenos Doukas.