His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia on the falling asleep of His Eminence Metropolitan Germanos of Tranoupolis

His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia speaks of “an authentic and genuine Hierarch, who completely preserved the old tradition of the Phanar Hierarchs” and who “the younger generation of the Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne considered him a model Hierarch”, in his farewell message for the blessed Metropolitan Germanos of Tranoupolis, who fell asleep in the Lord on Tuesday, April 12, 2022.

His Eminence Archbishop Makarios makes mention with words of gratitude to the person of the great Hierarch of Constantinople, while he prays on behalf of the whole Holy Archdiocese of Australia that our Good and Loving God grants him rest with the Saints and the Righteous in Heaven.

More specifically, Archbishop Makarios of Australia states:

“With great emotion but also with  hope in the Resurrection, while in Constantinople, I was informed of the falling asleep of Metropolitan Germanos of Tranoupolis in the Lord, the venerable and evergreen Hierarch of the Mother Church of Constantinople, Hierarchical Head of the Magnificent Community of Stavrodromi, for a number of years.

His Eminence Metropolitan Germanos was a special and very charismatic personality. He was an authentic and genuine Hierarch, who completely preserved the old tradition of the Hierarchs of the Phanar. He was a philanthropist, an excellent connoisseur of the ecclesiastical typikon and the order of the Holy and Divine Services, an exemplary minister of the Sacraments of the Holy Church and an excellent preserver of our ecclesiastical music, as he was taught, first, at the Theological School of Halki, where he studied.

A Man of duty. Serious, but not inaccessible. Prudent and reserved in His speech, but never isolated . Born in the once numerous Romiosene Galata of Constantinople. You found him on the chanters stand, in the altar of the Holy Church of the Greek Orthodox Community of Stavrodromi and in the dining room of the students of The Zappeion in Agia Triada.

Whatever he did, he did it with a lot of love and honesty. Deeply noble, stately and, at the same time, Doric and unfeigned. Humble, with an absolute aversion to self-promotion or the desired promotion of his ministry. He was accustomed to saying: “We in the Phanar have a bright star, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. This person is adorned by Divine Providence with so many extraordinary gifts, to direct the Mother Church in the 21st century. All we are able to do is pray for Him and draw light from His self-evident example. ” This is a simple but tangible example of the prudent and authentic ecclesiastical conscience of Metropolitan Germanos of Tranoupolis  and the ethos that distinguished him.

The Blessed Hierarch, who entrusted me with his honorable vote for my election as Archbishop of Australia, was considered by the younger generation of Archpriests of the Ecumenical Throne as a model Hierarch, because for the younger generation he was loving and not critical, he taught without making himself the teacher and  especially did not consider age only to be that which judged man’s worth. And He was a real gift from God, because we knew a living example of a generation of Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Throne smoked with the old and fragrant vine of Phanar.

Dedicated to God, to the Institution and to His Patriarch, the Bishop from ‘Beyond the City’ gave his own testimony for the prosperous ministry of the Phanar in times when all these ideals are going through their own deep crisis.

It saddens me that for various practical reasons I do not have the opportunity to write more about this ecclesiastical figure, from tralles to Metropolitan Germanos of Tranoupolis, the one ordained by the wise Elder Meliton, who served self-sacrificially his benefactor, Metropolitan Kyrillos of Chaldia as “Bishop-Deacon”, as he joyfully used to say.

But I have to admit that for some people silence is so beautiful, especially when they have chosen to embellish it with their love of hymns and worship of God, either from the analogion or from the Holy Altar Table.For this great Hierarch of Constantinople, who was never an acquirer of power, the gratitude of all of us and our recognition of his blessed personhood is great and ever-lasting.

The Most Reverend Brother Bishops in Christ, the noble clergy and the Christ-loving people of the fifth continent, together with my lowly self, pray earnestly that God grants to Him rest with the Saints and the Righteous”.