Harkianakis Stylianos

Blessed Stylianos Harkianakis (Rethymno, December 29, 1935 - Sydney, March 25, 2019) was Archbishop of Australia, Venerable and Exarch of all Oceania from 1975 to 2019. He studied at the I. Theological School of Xalki and graduated in 1958. He was ordained a deacon in 1957 and Elder in 1958. He did further training in Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion, in Bonn, West Germany from 1958 to 1966. In the same year he was appointed Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of Blatadon in Thessaloniki and Vice-President and then President of the Patriarchal Foundation for Patristic Studies, of which he was one of the founding members. He was awarded a Doctor of Theology at the University of Athens (1965) and was Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of Thessaloniki (1969-1975). In 1970 he was unanimously elected, under the Holy and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Titular Metropolitan of Militoupolis and remained in the Holy Monastery of Blatades and exercised the duties of Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the issues of Northern Greece and Mount Athos. In 1975 he was unanimously elected Archbishop of Australia. He had repeatedly represented the Ecumenical Patriarchate in conferences of the P.S.E. From the beginning of the Theological Dialogue between Orthodox and Roman Catholics, he was the leader of the Patriarchal Delegation and the co-chairman elected by the Orthodox side. Before this dialogue, he was also a member of the Patriarchal Delegation to the International Commission for Dialogue with Anglicans, as well as Co-Chairman for a time. He wrote studies on issues of Dogmatic and Systematic Theology in general, as well as various essays, and many poetry collections. He taught Orthodox Theology and Spirituality at Sydney University. Among other honors, he was awarded the Gottfried von Herder International Prize (1973), as well as the Poetry Prize of the Athens Academy (1980). He was declared an Honorary Doctor of the University of Lublin, Poland (1985) and of the Sydney College of Divinity (2001).

He was a leading figure of Orthodoxy, with profound cultivation and education, a genuine philosopher and award-winning poet.