I. Athenagoras

Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I , born Aristocles Matthaiou Spyrou (; 6 April 1886 (25 March) – 7 July 1972), was the 268th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from November 1948, until his death in July 1972, serving as the primus inter pares (first among equals) and spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity worldwide.

Prior to his election to the Ecumenical Throne, Athenagoras served as the Archbishop of North and South America (GOARCH) from 1930 to 1948, where he played a pivotal role in organizing the Greek Diaspora.

Biography

Athenagoras was born as Aristocles Matthew Spyrou on 6 April 1886 (25 March) in the village of Vasiliko, near Ioannina, Epirus (then in the Ottoman Empire). He has been described as having been of Aromanian, Albanian, or Greek descent. He called it: "The Cathedral of all of Hellenism in America".

On 1 November 1948, Athenagoras I was elected Patriarch of Constantinople at the age of 62. As Patriarch, he was actively involved with the World Council of Churches and improving relations with the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope.

He was hospitalized on 6 July 1972, for a broken hip, but died from kidney failure in Istanbul the following day at the age of 86. He was buried in the cemetery within the grounds of the Church of Saint Mary of the Spring in Balıklı, Istanbul.

Ecumenical relations

Athenagoras I's meeting with Pope Paul VI in 1964 in Jerusalem led to rescinding the excommunications of 1054 which historically mark the Great Schism, the schism between the churches of the East and West. This was a significant step towards restoring relations between Rome, Constantinople, and the other patriarchates of Eastern Orthodoxy. It produced the Catholic–Orthodox Joint Declaration of 1965, which was read out on 7 December 1965, simultaneously at a public meeting of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Constantinople.

The declaration did not end the 1054 schism but rather showed a desire for reconciliation between the two churches and friendlier relations. Catholic–Eastern Orthodox relations did improve as now neither side was officially calling the other heretics, but it was not an agreement for "full communion" in which both sides would essentially accept the other entirely, nor did such a development come later.

Most Orthodox leaders were mildly positive and accepting toward the move, seeing the old excommunication as too sharp a measure. There was one who strongly objected: Metropolitan Philaret Voznesensky of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia challenged the Patriarch's efforts at rapprochement in an open letter in 1965. He argued that no rapprochement was possible until the Catholic Church "renounces its new doctrines".

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