Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Beloved Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos dies at 93

In 37 years in office, Archbishop Iakovos was a regular visitor to the annual Epiphany celebration in Tarpon Springs.

By CRAIG BASSE
Published April 13, 2005

Archbishop Iakovos, former primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in North and South America and a beloved figure in Tarpon Springs, where he regularly visited at the annual Epiphany celebration during his 37 years in office, has died at 93.

A towering figure in the ecumenical movement and the first Greek archbishop in 350 years to officially confer with a pope, Archbishop Iakovos died Sunday at a hospital in Stamford, Conn.

In his stewardship, he became an imposing religious figure and a champion of social causes, and the Greek Orthodox Church moved into the mainstream of religious and political life.

"His eminence had been archbishop for so many years, since 1959 through the mid 1990s, that for some people he was the only archbishop they knew for a long time," said the Rev. Father James Rousakis, senior priest at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Clearwater and vicar for Tampa Bay for the church's metropolis of Atlanta.

"He was beloved by everybody and did great things for the Greek Orthodox Church in America, bringing it out from being an immigrant church into the mainstream of American life," Rousakis said.

"Ecumenism," the archbishop said in 1960, "is the hope for international understanding, for humanitarian allegiance, for true peace based on justice and dignity, and for God's continued presence and involvement in modern history."

His unexpected retirement in 1996 on his 85th birthday left church members stunned.

That year, about 1,000 people squeezed into the ornate St. Nicholas Cathedral in Tarpon Springs to welcome his replacement, George Papageorgiu, who took the name Archbishop Spyridon, and to say goodbye to the former archbishop.

The white-bearded archbishop prompted a standing ovation the moment he appeared in the church and was repeatedly stopped by well-wishers as he tried to lead the recessional. People leaped from the pews to kiss him on both cheeks.

Locally, members of the Greek Orthodox church looked forward so much to the archbishop's visits at Epiphany that he stayed for almost a week after the celebration, presiding at services in churches on both sides of Tampa Bay and visiting families.

"He was a tremendous man," said Father Tryfon Theophilopoulos, dean emeritus of St. Nicholas. "He traveled extensively. ... He reminds me of the late Pope John Paul II. In the same way (as the pope), I can say our archbishop was very, very open-minded. He always participated in dialogues with Catholics and Protestants and everyone else."

During Archbishop Iakovos' long tenure, his most dramatic action might have been marching with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 in Selma, Ala. The New York Times reported, "The striking cover of Time magazine that showed Dr. King side by side with the black-garbed Archbishop Iakovos marked a new presence of Greek Americans and the Greek Orthodox church in American life."

The archbishop became a regular visitor to the White House and a recognized voice on issues like the Vietnam War and abortion.

He was instrumental in setting up dialogues between Orthodox churches and Anglicans, Lutherans, Southern Baptists and other denominations. He met every U.S. president from Eisenhower through Clinton, and was one of the U.S. Christian leaders who met with Pope John Paul II in a historic gathering in South Carolina in 1987.

In 1959, shortly after being named archbishop, he called on Pope John XXIII in the first meeting of an Orthodox leader and a pope in 350 years.

He sought to maintain Orthodox traditions such as opposing the ordination of women, while at the same time championing human rights and improved race relations.

Many honors and honorary degrees came his way. In 1980, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter.

He is survived by a niece in Canada and other relatives in Greece. He will lie in state at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City. His funeral will be Thursday morning. Burial will be Friday morning on the Holy Cross Chapel grounds in Brookline, Mass.

--Times staff writer Richard Danielson contributed to this obituary. Information from Times files, the New York Times and the Associated Press also was used.

[Last modified April 13, 2005, 01:31:06]