The Primate of the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus, Archbishop of New Justinian and All Cyprus, Chrysostomos II, reposed in the Lord on Monday morning at the age of 81.
An announcement by the Archdiocese in Nicosia noted that “…the Archbishop fell asleep peacefully after facing the tribulations of his illness with courage, patience and Christian determination.”
The Metropolitan of Paphos, His Grace Georgios, was appointed as locum tenens of the Church of Cyprus, until a new Archbishop is elected among a trio of candidates by the hierarch members of the Holy Synod.
Chrysostomos was born in 1941 in the village of Tala, in the Paphos prefecture of Cyprus, as Herodotos Demetriou. He was ordained as a deacon in 1963, and in 1968, he commenced studies at the Athens University’s School of Theology, graduating in 1972.
In October 1972 he was elected abbot of the Monastery of Aghios Neophytos and ordained as an elder.
Chrysostomos II was enthroned as Archbishop of Cyprus in November 2006.
In Constantinople, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, hours later officiated at a Trisagion prayer service for the repose of the Archbishop’s soul, accompanied by hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne, clergymen of the Patriarchal Court and Athonite Elders.
After welcoming a group of pilgrims from the Cyclades Island of Tinos, the Ecumenical Patriarch referred to the brave battle that the late Archbishop fought against cancer.