Spyridon of Athens

{{Short description|Eastern Orthodox archbishop}}

{{refimprove|date=May 2007}}

File:Spiridon HPIM6085.jpg

Spyridon (secular name: Σπυρίδων Βλάχος Spyridon Vlachos) was Archbishop of Athens and All Greece from 1949 until 1956. He was born in Chili (Χήλη), in present-day northern Turkey.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} His parents originated from the village of {{ill|Roupsia|el|Ρουψιά Ιωαννίνων}}, near Pogoni in northern Greece.[https://www.imioanninon.gr/main/?page_id=312 Ὁ Μητροπολίτης Ἰωαννίνων Σπυρίδων Βλάχος].[https://www.himara.gr/istoria/16883-archiepiskopos-spyridon-vlachos-mia-apo-tis-megalyteres-morfes-tis-ipeirou Αρχιεπίσκοπος Σπυρ. Βλάχος - Μια από τις μεγαλύτερες μορφές της Ηπείρου]. He studied at the Halki seminary. As a senior preacher in Kavala, he offered moral and material support to the Struggle for Macedonia, and in 1906, he was elected Metropolitan Bishop of Vella and Konitsa. His services during the Balkan Wars and on the matter of Northern Epirus were significant. In the Vella Monastery, he founded a seminary based on a primary school.

In 1916, he was elected Metropolitan of Ioannina and in 1949 was elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. He worked to reorganize the church after the Second World War and the Greek Civil War.

In 1950 he led the call in Greece for enosis, the union of Cyprus with Greece.{{cite book|title=Stirring the Greek Nation: Political Culture, Irredentism and Anti-Americanism in Post-war Greece, 1945-1967|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j4x71iWyYNkC|first=Giannēs D.|last=Stephanidēs|publisher=Ashgate Publishing|year=2007|isbn=9780754660590|page=109}} He actively participated in the war in Cyprus, and was succeeded by Makarios, later Archbishop of Cyprus.

He died in 1956 and was succeeded by Archbishop Dorotheus.