A rare photograph of the newly-canonized St. Kallinikos of Edessa has been published online by the Orthodoxia News Agency.
The photo was provided to the Agency by journalist Dimitrios Stroumbakοs, and shows St. Kallinikos as a three-year-old child in 1922 in his hometown of Sitaralona, 175 miles northwest of Athens.
The great 20th-century hierarch, who served as the Metropolitan of Edessa from 1967 until his repose in 1984, was canonized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople on June 23. His relics were uncovered and placed in Holy Protection Cathedral for veneration on October 14-15.
St. Kallinikos, the Metropolitan of Edessa, was born on January 26, 1919, to pious parents Georgios and Ekaterina, who instilled in him faith in God and a love for the Church and raised him in an ascetic manner. His grandfather, Fr. Athanasios, and his grandmother also gave him valuable spiritual guidance in his childhood, teaching him to love the holy places.
Listen to the voice of St. Kallinikos from an introductory speech he offered at the hierarchical conference of the Holy Metropolis of Edessa in 1970.
