Four years ago today, on November 7, 2022, Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus died at the age of 81 after a four-year ...

Four years ago today, on November 7, 2022, Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus died at the age of 81 after a four-year battle with intestinal and liver cancer. He passed peacefully at the Church's headquarters in Nicosia at 6:40 in the morning. Born on April 10, 1941, in Tala, Paphos, Chrysostomos joined the monastery of Saint Neophytos straight after primary school and rose steadily through the ranks of the Church. He became Bishop of Paphos in 1978 and was enthroned as Archbishop in 2006, winning the position through a sharp political maneuver that secured him majority support among the college of clerics despite trailing in the lay vote. As Archbishop, he was anything but quiet. He called politicians and bankers "thieves" who left ordinary Cypriots to pay for their failures, and during the 2013 financial crisis he declared that Cyprus should have abandoned the euro rather than accept a bailout that he said stripped the country of its dignity. His famous verdict on the deal: "This isn't the Europe that we believed in when we joined." On Turkey, he was equally direct. He said publicly in 2018 that he never believed a reunification deal was possible because Turkey's real goal was to entrench a permanent Turkish state in the north. He strongly criticized Turkey's 1974 invasion and its ongoing occupation of northern Cyprus, and for years was banned from traveling to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople as a result of his positions. He also condemned Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine without hesitation, calling it unjustifiable and questioning whether the Russian president was "in his right mind." His funeral was presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades delivered the eulogy. Cyprus declared five days of national mourning when he died. He is buried in a crypt beneath Saint Barnabas Cathedral in Nicosia, a resting place he had prepared himself while still alive. #Cyprus #Archbishop #CyprusChurch