DRAMA – Metropolitan Pavlos of Drama died unexpectedly on May 2 due to a heart problem in a hospital in Thessaloniki where he was transferred in the early hours of Monday morning.

The Metropolitan was in Naoussa during that weekend, invited by Metropolitan Panteleimon of Naoussa, to attend the festivities for the 200th anniversary of the Holocaust of Naousa and for the celebration of the Life-giving Spring.

Present were also His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, the President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and many other dignitaries.

On May 1 the late Metropolitan visited Veria where, he felt unwell and was initially taken to the city hospital, and then transferred to a Thessaloniki hospital.

Metropolitan Pavlos was born in Veria, Greece in 1963. After his elementary schooling he studied at the Ecclesiastical School of Lamia and he continued his studies at the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki. Upon completion of his undergraduate studies in 1988, he continued his graduate studies, receiving a doctoral degree.

He was ordained a deacon in 1983 and a presbyter in 1988 by the late  Metropolitan Pavlos of Veria. He was priest of the Holy Church of Saint Anthony, patron saint of Veria, and then in 1991 he was elected abbot of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Soumela and vice-president of the board of directors of the foundation which bears the same name.

He has written many articles in newspapers and magazines and has given many fine homilies, speeches, and lectures. He had taken part in ecclesiastical missions in Greece and abroad.

Five days after the death of the Metropolitan of Drama Dionysios on October 5, 2005, Metropolitan Pavlos was elected Metropolitan of Drama by the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. He was ordained a Bishop on the 9th of the same month. He inaugurated the new church of Agios Chrysostomos of Smyrna in Drama in 2016.