Metrophanes Μητροφάνης | |
Patriarch Of: | Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa |
Enthroned: | 1636 |
Ended: | 1639 |
Church: | Eastern Orthodox Church |
See: | Alexandria |
Predecessor: | Gerasimus Ι |
Successor: | Nicephorus |
Birth Name: | Metrophanes Kritopoulos |
Birth Place: | Veria, Ottoman Empire |
Death Date: | 30 May 1639 |
Death Place: | Wallachia, Ottoman Empire |
Occupation: | Theology, Greek literature, and philosophy |
Metrophanes Kritopoulos, sometimes Critopoulos, Critopoulus, Kritopulus (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Μητροφάνης Κριτόπουλος, - 30 May 1639)[1] was a Greek[2] monk and theologian who served as Greek Patriarch of Alexandria between 1636 and 1639.
Metrophanes Kritopoulos was a Greek[3] [4] 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.[5] 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 in 1639.