About Athenagoras I of Constantinople
Athenagoras I of Constantinople, born Aristocles Matthaiou Spyrou, was Greek Orthodox Archbishop of North and South America from 1930 to 1948 and the 268th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1948 to 1972. He expanded the work of the clergy-laity congresses and founded the Holy Cross School of Theology. Athenagoras was born as Aristocles Matthew Spyrou on 6 April 1886 (25 March) in the village of Vasiliko, near Ioannina, Epirus (then in the Ottoman Empire). Athenagoras devoted himself to religion at an early age because of the encouragement he received from his mother and a priest from his village. Upon graduating, he was tonsured a monk, given the name Athenagoras, and ordained to the diaconate.
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