1. In Edessa

After graduating from the Theological School of Thessaloniki with first class honours, he chose, despite proposals from his Professors for further studies and an academic career, to enter the ecclesiastical ministry. He moved to the Metropolis under the supervision of Metropolitan Kallinikos (Poulos), who has recently been included by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in the Church’s calendar of saints, whom he knew already and with whom he had been linked spiritually since the time when he was studying at high school in Agrinio. He served with him as an assistant lay Preacher of ‘Apostoliki Diakonia’ (1969-1971).

He was tonsured as a monk of the great schema by St Kallinikos on 13 September 1971, and on 10 October of the same year he was admitted to holy orders, being ordained deacon by him. He was appointed Diocesan Preacher of what was then ODDEP (Organisation for the Management of Church Property) (1971). On 25 June 1972 he was ordained priest and made Archimandrite in the Metropolis of Edessa, Pella and Almopia.

As Diocesan Preacher he travelled around the borderline province and organised talks, sermons, catechetical instruction and the summer camps of the Holy Metropolis. He directed, and taught at, fast-track training courses for priests, spoke at clergy conferences, worked with young people, set up hostels, and organised meetings to study Holy Scripture and afternoon sermons.

With the blessing of his Elder, St Kallinikos, he was in close contact with the Holy Mountain, which he knew from his University studies. He was linked spiritually with many Athonite monks, including St Paisios of the Holy Mountain and St Ephraim of Katounakia, and he would visit the monasteries and the sketes of the Holy Mountain. He also met and formed strong spiritual connections with St Sophrony the Athonite, who was then living as a monk at the Holy Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex, England. Every summer he would visit the Monastery, where he was also initiated into the hesychastic tradition of the Church.

As a result of his acquaintance with all these great ascetic figures, he wrote books and published articles about them. He also made proposals to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the canonisation of St Porphyrius of Kavsokalyvia, St Paisios of the Holy Mountain and St Sophrony the Athonite.

Living under the same roof in the Metropolis for fifteen years with an ascetic bishop, Metropolitan Kallinikos, led him, after the Metropolitan’s death, to write his biography and record his miracles. In this way he also contributed to his canonisation by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2020.
For three years he met the liturgical needs of the officers and soldiers of the Second Division Edessa, acting as a military priest.

He served in Edessa for a total of eighteen years.

In Edessa he also founded, and directed as spiritual father, a monastic community for women, which is today settled in the Birth of the Theotokos Monastery (Pelagia) in the Holy Metropolis of Thiva, Levadia and Avlida. The nuns, apart from their other monastic duties, have as their main work of obedience the editing, publication and distribution of his writings (https://pelagia.org).