Christoforos Knitis

Last updated March 20, 2019

Christoforos Knitis (Greek: Χριστόφορος Κνιτής; 17 December 1872, in Samos, Greece – 7 August 1959, in Samos, Greece) was a Greek priest and Greek Orthodox bishop in the Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand from 1924 to 1928.

The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world.

The Church of Greece, part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Orthodox Christianity. Its canonical territory is confined to the borders of Greece prior to the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, with the rest of Greece being subject to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. However, most of the dioceses of the Metropolises of the New Lands are de facto administered as part of the Church of Greece for practical reasons, under an agreement between the churches of Athens and Constantinople. The primate of the Church of Greece is the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

A metropolis religious jurisdiction, or a metropolitan archdiocese, is an episcopal see whose bishop is the metropolitan bishop of an ecclesiastical province. Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces.

Overview

Knitis was born on 17 December 1872 and baptised Charidemos. He was born and raised in Vathi, on the island of Samos, and was the son of Charidemos Knitis and his wife Fioritsa. He studied at the University of Athens, and studied theology at the Theological School of Halki.

Samos is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of Asia Minor, from which it is separated by the 1.6-kilometre (1.0 mi)-wide Mycale Strait. It is also a separate regional unit of the North Aegean region, and the only municipality of the regional unit.

He was made deacon in on 19 July 1898 and took the name Christoforos. He became a teacher at his old high school, Pythagoreion Gymnasion, on Samos. In 1905, he spent a year studying theology and English at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and transferred to the University of Oxford where he graduated in 1909.

University of St Andrews university in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

The University of St Andrews is a British public university in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and the third oldest university in the English-speaking world. St Andrews was founded between 1410 and 1413, when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy.

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Sharing a border with England to the southeast, Scotland is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, by the North Sea to the northeast and by the Irish Sea to the south. In addition to the mainland, situated on the northern third of the island of Great Britain, Scotland has over 790 islands, including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.

The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled north-east to Cambridge where they established what became the University of Cambridge. The two 'ancient universities' are frequently jointly called 'Oxbridge'. The history and influence of the University of Oxford has made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

He was ordained priest on 23 April 1910, raised to the rank of archimandrite and then on 12 December titular bishop consecrated of Stauropolis. In 1918 he was elevated to metropolitan bishop of Serrai.

The title archimandrite, primarily used in the Eastern Orthodox and the Eastern Catholic churches, originally referred to a superior abbot (hegumenos) whom a bishop appointed to supervise several 'ordinary' abbots and monasteries, or to the abbot of some especially great and important monastery.

In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis.

Metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand

The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople established the Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand in 1924 and appointed Christophoros as hierarch. Metropolitan Christophoros arrived in Australia on 8 July 1924 to begin a stormy tenure. He was confronted by Archimandrite Irenaios Kasimatis, a priest who ignored the metropolitan and wrote inflammatory articles in the local Greek press. Factional rivalry and bitterness prevented Knitis from achieving much, and divisions in the church made his position untenable. In February 1928 he was recalled to Greece.^[1]

Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), of the Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Crusader state known as the Latin Empire (1204–1261), until finally falling to the Ottoman Empire (1453–1923). It was reinaugurated in 324 from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, and dedicated on 11 May 330. The city was located in what is now the European side and the core of modern Istanbul.

Father Theophylactos Papathanasopoulos was sent to Sydney as administrator until a new bishop arrived. Knitis was officially succeeded by Metropolitan Timotheos Evangelinidis in 1931.

Metropolitan Theophylactos was a Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.

Timotheos Evangelinidis, was a Greek priest and Greek Orthodox bishop who presided over the Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand from 1931 to 1947, and the Metropolis of Rhodes from 1947 to 1949.

Metropolitan of Bizye

He was granted the title of Metropolitan of Bizye (East Thrace) and spent most of his remaining life back in Samos, where he died on 7 August 1959.^[2]

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References

Eastern Orthodox Church titles
New title	Metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand 1924–1928	Succeeded by Metropolitan Timotheos

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[1] Knetes, Christophoros (1872–1958)

[2] rthodoxwiki:Christoforos (Knitis) of Samos