Chrysostomos I

Summary

Archbishop of Athens and All Greece (1923-1938) and author of the History of the Church of Jerusalem, who received Niqula Khoury and Emile al-Ghouri in Athens in October 1937 (‘The House of the Priest’: A Palestinian Life (1885-1954), PDF p.149, editors’ note).

Chrysostomos I (1868-1938) was Metropolitan of Athens from March to December 1923, when he became the first Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, serving until his death on 22 October 1938; a popular leader, an “accomplished church historian,” and politically a Venizelist who was one of the main impediments to the Metaxas regime’s takeover of the Greek church (editors’ note, PDF p.149).
He was a member of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, but Patriarch Damianos expelled him together with Meletios Metaxakis from Jerusalem for their endeavour to depose Damianos in the church crisis of 1908-1910; Khoury knew him from Jerusalem, when he was headmaster of the Patriarchate’s Theological School of the Cross (PDF p.149).
In the Memoirs he honoured the delegation, told them Patriarch Nicholas of Alexandria had visited Athens for the same purpose, said he himself would not relent in asking the Greek government to help, expressed astonishment at the Jerusalem Patriarchate’s idleness in defending the Palestinian cause, describing them as fools, and helped organize meetings with the Ministers of Religions, Foreign Affairs and Information (PDF p.149-150).