Meletios Metaxakis (1926-1935): The Visionary Alexandrian Primatetranslated

"Honor to those where in their lives

they defined and guarded Thermopylae.

Never out of debt immobile […]"

[K. P. Cavafy, "Thermopyles", Poems, Ikaros, 2014]

By Metropolitan Theodore of Seleucia (Professor of the Patriarchal Supreme Ecclesiastical Academy of Crete)

With the verses of the Alexandrian Poet, today, July 28, our thoughts turn with respect and honor to the memory of a leading ecclesiastical figure, the enlightened and blessed Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Mr. Meletios Metaxakis. The unexpected abdication of the sixty-four-year-old Meletius, which occurred on July 28, 1935, marked the end of a golden era in the history of the Alexandrian Throne. Metaxakis, originally from the county of Parsas (Metaxochorion) in the prefecture of Lasithi in Crete, was undoubtedly one of the most important ecclesiastical figures of his time. With his tireless action, he left his indelible traces on the following generations and largely determined the course of the Alexandrian Church for many decades after his death. His pre-hierarchical ministry at the Throne of the Apostle Mark lasted from 1926 to 1935, a…