Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos

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His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos and Agios Vlasios (also Ierotheos) serves the Metropolis of Nafpaktos and Agios Vlasios in the Church of Greece. He has been Metropolitan of Nafpaktos since 1995.

Life

He was born Georgios S. Vlachos in Ioannina, Epirus, Greece, in 1945 and graduated from the theological school of the University of Thessaloniki. He was ordained a deacon in 1971, taking the monastic name Hierotheos, followed by his ordination as a priest in 1972. He served at the Archbishop's House of Offices in Athens, as a preacher and Youth Director. He was consecrated bishop on July 20, 1995, and elected Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and St. Vlasios in the same year.

He taught Greek for several semesters and gave lectures on Orthodox ethics to the students of the St. John of Damascus Theological School at the University of the Patriarchate of Antioch, in northern Lebanon.

Already in his youth he was particularly interested in the Fathers of the Church, working for a time in the monastery libraries of Mount Athos, on the recording of the codices. He was especially interested in the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas.

The influence of Fr. John Romanidis, the study of the patristic texts and particularly those of the hesychast Fathers of the Philokalia, many years of studying St. Gregory Palamas, association with the monks of the Holy Mountain (Mount Athos), and many years of pastoral experience, all brought him to the realisation that Orthodox theology is a science of the healing of man and that the neptic fathers can help the modern restless man who is disturbed by many internal and existential problems.

Within this framework he has written a multitude of books, the fruit of his pastoral work, among which is Orthodox Psychotherapy. Some of these books have been translated into various languages, such as English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. With these books he conveys the Orthodox spirit of the Philokalia to the restless and disturbed man of our time. This is why they have aroused so much interest.

Books

  • Hesychia and Theology: The Context for Man's Healing in the Orthodox Church (2007). ISBN 9789607070609
  • The Illness and Cure of the Soul in the Orthodox Tradition (1993). ISBN 9607070186
  • Life after Death (1996). ISBN 9607070348
  • Orthodox Psychotherapy (1994). ISBN 9607070208
  • Orthodox Spirituality (1994). ISBN 9607070208
  • The Person in the Orthodox Tradition (1999). ISBN 9607070402
Succession box:
Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos
Preceded by:
Alexander (Papadopoulos)
Metropolitan of Nafpaktos
1995 - Present
Succeeded by:
Help with box



Sources

External links

Writings