Metropolitan Athenagoras of Bizye Falls Asleep in the Lord at 84
Funeral to be held July 7 in Des Plaines, Illinois; Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago and Archbishop Elpidophoros will preside.
CHICAGO — Metropolitan Athenagoras of Bizye, a distinguished hierarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, reposed in the Lord on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, at the age of 84. His funeral will be held on July 7 at 1 p.m. at the Church of St. John the Baptist in Des Plaines, Illinois, with interment to follow at Elmwood Cemetery.
The funeral Divine Liturgy will be celebrated earlier that day by His Eminence Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago. His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America will represent Patriarch Bartholomew and the Church of Constantinople.
Born George Anastasides in Chicago in 1941, Metropolitan Athenagoras was ordained a deacon in 1965 and a priest in 1967 after graduating from the University of Athens’ Theological School. He later earned a postgraduate degree from the University of Michigan. A longtime servant of the Church in America, he held various leadership roles, including Auxiliary Bishop of Dorylaion, chancellor of the Diocese of Chicago, and director of youth and inter-Orthodox ministries.
In 1996, he was appointed by Patriarch Bartholomew to establish the Metropolis of Hong Kong, and would later become the first Metropolitan of the newly established Metropolis of Panama (now Mexico). In 2024, he was unanimously elected Metropolitan of the historic Metropolis of Bizye following his retirement from Mexico.
