Metropolis of Argolis

Metropolis of Argolis
Ιερά Μητρόπολις Αργολίδος

St. George Metropolitan Cathedral
Location
Ecclesiastical province Argolis
Statistics
Churches 76 churches, 34 chapels, 264 exoklessia (chapels-of-ease used for designated saints' days), 90 memorial shrines, 8 monastic chapels, 32 private chapels.
Information
Cathedral Saint George Metropolitan Cathedral, Nafplio
Current leadership
Bishop Nektarios Antonopoulos
Website
http://www.ecclesia.gr/greek/Dioceses/dioceses.asp?mitra_id=3

The Metropolis of Argolis (Greek, Ιερά Μητρόπολις Αργολίδος, "Holy Metropolis of Argolis") is a diocese of the Church of Greece, with its seat at Nafplio, covering the historical Argolid (Argolis). It occupies the current boundaries of the modern Prefecture of Argolis, except for the former municipality of Ermionida.

The see's original name was the Bishopric of Argos, and according to Paulinus the Deacon, it was founded by Saint Andrew. The early bishops of Argos were suffragan to the Metropolis of Corinth. It was separated from Corinth renamed the Metropolis of Argos and Nafplio in 1189, confirming an earlier de facto merger with Nauplion. In 1833, it was renamed the Metropolis of Argolis. Its cathedra was originally Argos, but it moved around the Argolid several times due to political factors.

Its incumbent is Metropolitan Nektarios Antonopoulos (b. 1952). The previous metropolitan, from 1985 until his death, was Metropolitan Iakovos ("James") II (1932-2013), who died 26 March 2013. (In Greek, the late metropolitan, like other deceased Orthodox faithful, he is referred to as makaristos — "of blessed memory.") The current metropolitan was chosen on 18 October 2013.

Saint Nicholas Church in Nafplio

History and ecclesiastical administration

According to the article "Argos and Orthodoxy Through the Passage of the Ages", written by the Archimandrite Kallinikos D. Korobokis, the diocesan homilist (published in the periodical "Eyes on Argolis", Volume 10, May–June 2002), the history of the metropolitan see is recorded as follows:

Paulinus (354-431 AD) relates that the Apostle Andrew first proclaimed the Gospel at Argos, and thus he is traditionally held to be the founder of the Church there. It is also likely that the Apostle Paul came to Argos, some time around 50-60 AD; he remained in Corinth for a considerable number of months and, it is also thought, all around the neighboring provinces of Corinth. Argos acclaimed a bishop fairly early on, separate from that of the bishopric of Nauplia (Nafplio), with both under the jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Corinth.

The first known Bishop of Argos is Perigenes. At the end of the 9th century, the Bishop of Argos was Saint Peter the Wonderworker, who became the town's patron saint. The sees of Argos and Nauplion were unified in 1166. According to other sources, the unification of Argos and Nauplion had already occurred a few years after 879. Throughout the minutes of the Council of 879 in Constantinople, written by the members, the Bishop of Argos is recorded as Theotimos, and that of Nauplion as Andreas, which establishes a terminus post quem, but not a precise date for the unification. In 1189 the unified diocese of Argos and Nauplion was extracted from the Metropolis of Corinth and converted into a metropolitan see sui juris, with one John serving as its first metropolitan.

According to the Argolic Calendar of 1910, which was produced by the Bishops of Argos and Nauplion, the Eparchy (Bishopric) of Argos was led under the Metroplis of Corinth:

Ceasing in the 9th century under the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Nicholas Mysticus and the Metropolitan of Corinth Paulus Siculus the Byzantine, which was brought about by the monk Brother Peter by name,

The Argives, esteeming said Peter for his virtues, sought of the Patriarch that he should lay hands on a Bishop of Argos. Peter, in blessedness and piety of life did shepherd paternally his flock, suffering himself along with them their proverbial hardships and afflictions. Peter partook, in the year 921-22 under Patriarch Nicholas II, in a synod in Constantinople under Constantine Porphyrogenitus, which was summed up thus: as the author of the famous volume of unanimity disavowing, among other things, the fourth marriage which had been sought by Leo VI the Wise. And returning thence, he fell asleep in the seventieth year of his life, in the arms of his shepherd, and whose relics afterward re-animated in full view of faithful at that place of the city at which his eponymous church was erected.[1] Peter was placed by the Church in the calendar of saints, preserving his memory on the 3rd of May, honoring him as the most pre-eminent patron of Argos. His Acolouthia was first written in Venice by the painter George Marcou, the same which with amplifications was re-worked in 1870 by the first Archbishop of Argolis, Daniel Petroulas.

— Bishops of Argos and Nauplion, Argolic Calendar of Saints

According to the anonymous hand-written chronicle published in Δελτίω Ιστορ. Εθνολ. Εταιρίας Τ.Β΄ σελ. 32, ed. Io. Sakellionos (Bulletins of the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece 303, p. 32), there are 23 recorded Bishops of Argos and Nauplion. Their names are as follows:

In 1212, the local Orthodox hierarchy was replaced by Latin hierarchs during the period of Frankish rule in which the two towns formed part of the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia. This state of affairs lasted until 1540, with the withdrawal of the Venetians after the Third Ottoman-Venetian War

Afterwards, the diocese returned to the control of Greek Orthodox hierarchs, but in 1686, the seat of the bishop moved from Argos to Nafplio. Shortly after the Venetians returned, and with them, a Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the Orthodox administration re-located to the village of Merbaka, returning to Argos in 1770 in the wake of attacks by Albanians irregulars.

At the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, the seat moved again to Nafplio. The bishop, Grigorios Kalamaras was killed in the Siege of Tripolitsa, and is consequently termed an ethnomartyr a national martyr, Greek: ἐθνομάρτυρας. This designation is a popular one, and has no canonical status making the bishop a saint, as death in battle does not necessarily qualify one for martyrdom.

After the creation of the Greek state but before the creation of the new autocephalous Church of Greece in 1850, the diocese underwent a brief period of successive reorganizations as the Patriarchate of Constantinople adjusted to having large numbers of faithful outside the Ottoman millet system. It was briefly merged with the Metropolis of Corinth (1841), with the addition of the Bishopric of Hydra in 1842, before its present jurisdiction was created between 1850-52.

Currently, the Bishop of Epidavros (Epidaurus) is suffragan to the Metropolitan Bishop of Argolis, and serves as the auxiliary bishop for the metropolis; he is sui juris the bishop of the See of Epidavros, and is subordinate to the Metropolitan only in his capacity as auxiliary in the See of Argolis and the metropolitan synod, over which the metropolitan presides. The General Hierarocratic Commissioner — akin to a western vicar general or archdeacon — is Archpriest Vasileios (Basil) Soulandros.

The Roman Catholic name for the diocese was Dioecesis Argolicensis . It is currently listed as suppressed, but in the past was used as the name of a titular see. Prior to 1882, the term used by the Catholic Church to describe this and other Orthodox dioceses formerly governed by Latin clergy was in partibus infidelium ("in the parts of the infidels"), but the term was changed by the papacy of Pope Leo XIII, reportedly in response to complaints by King George I of Greece over its offensive nature.[2]

List of bishops and metropolitans

Monasteries

The Monastery of Agia Marina at Argos from the road to Castle Larissa.

Total monastics, 121.

Within geographical boundaries of the Metropolis of Argolis there exists a further monastery, the Monastery of Avgou (Saint Demetrius), which is placed under the jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Hydra, Spetses, and Aegina.

People

Media

References

  1. ↑ The corpse is not held to have stood up and walked around, rather, the face appeared to briefly come to life again and was briefly surrounded by an apparently supernatural light. Άγιος Πέτρος ο Θαυματουργός Αρχιεπίσκοπος Άργους και Ναυπλίου (Saint Peter the Wonderworker Archbishop of Argos and Nafplio (in Greek, available at . Accessed 14 May 2015.
  2. ↑ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Corrigan, Owen B. (Oct 1920). "Titular sees of the American hierarchy". The Catholic historical review (Washington DC: The Catholic University Of America) 6 (3): 322–324. ISSN 0008-8080.

Sources

This page is a translation-in-progress from the Greek Wikipedia article, which relies upon the following sources written in the Greek language.

("Argolic Calendar 1910". Published in Athens by the Society of Argives. At Athens, by the publisher Demetrios Terzopoulos 1910.)

("Argos and Orthodoxy through the Progress of the Ages." Archimadndrite Kallinikos D. Korobokis, Diocesan Homilist of the Holy Metropolis of Argolis. Published in the periodical "Eyes on Argolis," Vol. 10, May–June, 2002)

(Church of Greece webpage for the metropolis)

(Records of the Argolic Archival Library of History and Culture)

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