See Alexandria Name Patriarch of Installed 1636 | Predecessor Gerasimus Ι Term ended 1639 | |
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Birth name Metrophanes Kritopoulos | ||
Mêtrophanês Kritopoulos, sometimes Critopoulos, Critopoulus, Kritopulus (Greek: Μητροφάνης Κριτόπουλος, c. 1589 – 30 May 1639) was a Greek monk and theologian who served as Greek Patriarch of Alexandria between 1636 and 1639.
Biography
Metrophanes Kritopoulos was a Greek born in Veria, Macedonia in 1589. Originally a monk on Mount Athos, he was a close associate of Cyril Lucaris. He studied at the University of Oxford in England (1617–24, funded by James I) and in Germany. He travelled to Europe and mingled with the greatest scholars and theologians of his day. He made Orthodoxy known in the West and was particularly concerned with the problem of unifying the Orthodox Church with the churches of Western Europe. He taught Greek in Vienna (1627–30). After a period as bishop of Memphis in Egypt, he was elected patriarch of Alexandria on 1636, where he put together an important library. He died in Wallachia on 1639.