HIS EMINENCE
METROPOLITAN STEPHANOS OF TALINN AND ALL ESTONIA

PRIMATE OF THE AUTONOMOUS CHURCH OF ESTONIA

BIOGRAPHY :

His Eminence Metropolitan Stephanos of Talinn and all Estonia (in the world Christakis Charalambides) was born in Bukavu (then Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of Congo) on April the 29th 1940 from parents of orthodox Cypriot Greeks. In 1959 he finished the college of «Notre-Dame de la Victoire». After this, he studied a year at the medical faculty in Louvain, Belgium, but feeling a clerical vocation he entered the St. Sergius Theological Institute (Paris) in 1960. At the same time he studied at the theological faculty in Sorbonne University, specializing on the ancient Fathers of the Desert. He graduated from the Institute as Master of Theology and got the degree of lector from the University. His master thesis concerned the diaconate in the Church.. He was ordained a deacon on January the 6th, 1963 and a priest on November the 17th, 1968. In 1972 he was nominated Chancellor of the Metropolis France and in March the 25th 1987 he was ordained the Bishop of Nazianzos (a vicar bishop of the Metropolitan of France ; his real residence was in Nice). He has been a secretary of the Conference of Orthodox Bishops in France, the chairman of the media commission of the Orthodox Churches in France, the producer of the Orthodox programs in French television and radio. He has been the representative of the French Metropolis and the Ecumenical Patriarchate on various international meetings in France, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Russia and Finland. He has written numerous theological articles and books that have been translated into Greek, Italian, Spanish and Rumanian and has been the editor of two journals in Southern France. For thirty years he has been the person responsible for the youth work of the Metropolis of France and also for the acceptance of the smaller marginal groups into the Church. He has been a lector at St. Sergius Theological Institute and from 1990 up to 1999 a professor of patrology at the Catholic Seminary of Nice. He has given lectures at the faculty of law of the University of Nice about the geopolitical role of the Orthodox Church and at the University of Montpellier on the spiritual tradition of Byzantium. He has worked a lot with the students and aided the Greek students during the military dictatorship in Greece and the Cypriot students at the beginning of the Turkish occupation in Northern Cyprus. He has made a wide social work with the unemployed, the drug addicts, the prisoners and the prostitutes. He has participated actively in the ecumenical cooperation in Southern France and Spain. He has done much for the integration of the Orthodox into the French society and has opened 12 parishes and 4 monasteries which consist of Orthodox of French origin.

Address:
Wismari 32

10136 Tallinn

Estonia

Tel/fax : +3726600781

E-mail : Stefanus@eoc.ee

Nameday: December 27

Date of ordination: March 25, 1987