New York, May 18, 2022
A former hierarch of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in America reposed in the Lord yesterday.
The former Bishop Vikentios (Malamatenios) of Apameia reposed early in the morning on May 17 at Bellevue Hospital in New York, at the age of 68, reports Romfea.
He had been hospitalized for the past five weeks, initially at Brooklyn’s Coney Island Hospital, and then Bellevue in Manhattan. As his health continued to deteriorate, he was admitted to the ICU. On April 11, he was intubated, and later underwent a successful tracheotomy.
However, he then suffered liver failure, which caused the dysfunction of other vital organs, and ultimately, his death.
After being removed from the clerical ranks, Vikentios worked for more than a decade at Hellas FM New York, which wishes him a “Good Paradise!”
May his memory be eternal!
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Vikentios was born in Athens in 1954. In 1971, he became a monk, and later joined a schismatic Old Calendarist group in the U.S.
In 1998, he was received into the Patriarchate of Constantinople as a monk, together with Paisios (Loulourgas) and St. Irene Chrysovalantou Monastery in Astoria and a number of associated churches and monasteries. He was then reordained to the diaconate and priesthood and reordained to the episcopacy. The monastery was given stavropegial status, being directly under the care of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, and Paisios, who became the Metropolitan of Tyanna, was appointed abbot, with Bp. Vikentios as deputy abbot.
A scandal broke out concerning serious allegations against Met. Paisios, and both hierarchs resigned from their duties at the monastery. The Synod of Constantinople then suspended them from clerical functions in December 2010. Bp. Vikentios was eventually defrocked, on March 28, 2012.
His passion for radio then led him to Hellas FM.
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