From his devout parents, Sotirios and Eftychia, and from the ecclesiastical environment of Ioannina and Agrinio, where he completed his high-school studies.
From his first spiritual father, Archimandrite Sebastian Oikonomidis, Diocesan Preacher of the Holy Metropolis of Ioannina, and later Metropolitan of Dryinoupolis, Pogoniani and Konitsa.
From the atmosphere of the Theological School of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, which had been permeated with the teaching of St Gregory Palamas, and from his many visits to the Holy Mountain during and after his years as a student.
From his professor, the eminent patrologist and researcher into the work and teaching of St Gregory Palamas, Panagiotis Christou, and later from the leading dogmatic theologian, Fr John Romanides, with whom he was closely associated until his death.
From his Elder, St Kallinikos, Metropolitan of Edessa, Pella and Almopia, from whom he received holy orders and gained experience of the ecclesiastical way of thinking, and with whom he lived in the building of the Holy Metropolis for fifteen years.
From studying the works of St Dionysius the Areopagite, the holy Fathers of the 4th century (St Basil the Great, St Gregory the Theologian, St Gregory of Nyssa, St John Chrysostom), St Maximus the Confessor (7th century), St John of Damascus (8th century), St Symeon the New Theologian (11th century), St Gregory Palamas (14th century), St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (18th century), and all the Fathers of the Philokalia.
From contemporary saints: St Paisios of the Holy Mountain, St Ephraim of Katounakia (disciple of St Joseph the Hesychast), St Sophrony the Athonite of Essex, and others.
From the three Archbishops of Athens and All Greece, Seraphim, Christodoulos and Hieronymus, whose close collaborator he was on ecclesiastical issues, as well as from Metropolitan Theoklitos of Ioannina.