Patriarch Irenaios

Irenaios Skopelitis (born 17 April 1939) was the 140th Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem from 2000 to 2005, though the dismissal was disputed. As Patriarch, he was styled Patriarch Irenaios or Irenaios I.

Irenaios was appointed locum tenens in 2000 and elected patriarch on 13 August 2001 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre He was enthroned on15 September 2001 as "Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine, Syria, beyond the Jordan River, Cana of Galilee and Holy Zion" in the presence of senior church and secular dignitaries, including Archbishop Christodoulos of the Church of Greece and Metropolitan Nicholas of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church.

Irenaios was born on the island of Samos, Greece as Emmanouil Skopelitis, in April 1939, and came to Jerusalem in 1953.

He served for many years as Exarch of the Holy Sepulchre in Athens.

A few years into Irenaios' patriarchate, he was accused of selling several parcels of church-owned land in the Old City of Jerusalem to Israeli developers.

As most of the Orthodox Christians in the area are Palestinian, and the land was in an Arab-populated area that most Palestinians hoped would become as a part of a future Palestinian capital, these accusations caused a great deal of concern among Church members. On March 19, 2005, the Palestinian Authority formed a commission to investigate these allegations.

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