Father Christos Pappas of Alyko, the First Priest Ordained by Archbishop Anastasios of Albania

Father Christos Pappas of Alyko, the first priest ordained by Archbishop Anastasios of Albania, has passed away at the age of 88.

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (Psalm 117 [118]:22)

Father Christos passed away in the early hours of this morning at the University General Hospital in Ioannina, where he had been receiving treatment. His son, Leonidas, announced his repose in a post. The funeral service will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, September 23, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. local time, at the Church of the Forty Martyrs in Alyko. That is where he was born in 1938, and that is where he has returned, as all those who never truly leave eventually return.

He bore a surname inherited from a priestly ancestor several generations back. The ancestor was gone; the name remained, waiting. It took several generations for that name to be filled with meaning once again, and Father Christos was the one who filled it, at the age of fifty-three.

Archbishop Anastasios of Albania Resource Page

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The Miracle in Albania

 

A Personal Story Archbishop Anastasios of Albania Once Told University Students in an Amphitheater

 

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The Veneration of Saint Asteios (Asti) in Albania

 

Anastasios, Jewel of Resurrectional Life (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

 

Writings 

The Relationship Between Orthodox and Other Christians

 

The Heresy Tackled at the Holy and Great Synod 

Mysticism (1 of 3)

Mysticism (2 of 3)

Mysticism (3 of 3)

Anastasios, Jewel of Resurrectional Life (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durres and All Albania was admitted to a Tirana hospital on 30 December 2024 due to a "seasonal virus", and was airlifted by the Hellenic Air Force to Athens four days later and admitted to Evangelismos Hospital, where he underwent emergency laparoscopic surgery to treat gastrointestinal bleeding. He died from multiple organ failure on 25 January 2025, at the age of 95.

By decision of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, his tabernacle was placed the following day at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens to be venerated by the faithful.

By decision of His Beatitude Archbishop Hieronymos of Athens and All Greece, on 26 January 2025 His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou presided over the Divine Liturgy at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, as Vice-President of the Holy Synod, in the presence of the sacred tabernacle of the late Archbishop of Anastasios.

The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Albania declared a five-day period of ecclesiastical mourning. The funeral service will be held at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Tirana on 30 January, where he will be buried in a special crypt under the cathedral.

 

The following video depicts Metropolitan Hierotheos on the morning of 28 January handing over the sacred tabernacle of the late Archbishop Anastasios to the people of Albania at the border between Greece and Albania, sending him off with the singing of "Christ is Risen".