On Sunday afternoon, 17 December 2023, Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, His Eminence Metropolitan Theodosios of Kinshasa conducted the monastic tonsure of a novice monk of the Holy Monastery of Saint Athanasios the Athonite, in Kinshasa of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he was given the new name of Kyprianos in honour and memory of the first and late Metropolitan Kyprianos Papadopoulos of Central Africa.

His Eminence Metropolitan Theodosios began his sermon by conveying the wishes of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and all Africa, the Patriarch of love. Metropolitan Theodosios explained to the new monk about the evolution of monasticism from the first centuries to the present day, saying that monks in every era remind everyone of the purpose of life which is none other than holiness.

He referred to the three stages that the monk must go through: purification, illumination and deification, working with self-knowledge, humility, repentance and purification of the heart from passions. He even spoke of the threefold renunciation to which the monk is called: the renunciation of the world, of self-will and vanity. He then briefly referred to the life of Saint Kyprianos, after whom the new monk took his name.

At the end, the Metropolitan wished the new monk well from the bottom of his heart for his new life in Christ and for his new spiritual struggles.