Patriarch Petros VII: Patriarch Petros VII of Alexandria, who was killed with 16 other people last Saturday in a helicopter crash in northern Greece, was the spiritual leader of the 300,000 Orthodox Christians on the African continent and one of the most senior figures in the Greek Orthodox world.
The 55-year-old patriarch, who once studied mission theology in Dublin, was the 115th Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All-Africa, and is seen as the bishop who was primarily responsible for the resurgence in recent decades of the Greek Orthodox Church in Africa, the oldest Christian denomination on the continent.
In recent decades the Orthodox Patriarchate in Alexandria has been to the forefront of Greek Orthodox missionary expansion in sub-Saharan Africa, and Patriarch Petros was the energetic architect of this revival.
Patriarch Petros was elected in 1997 as the 129th successor of St Mark the Evangelist, who founded the church in Egypt in year 42 AD. In the early days of the church the Patriarch of Alexandria was second to the Pope in Rome and later to the Patriarch of Constantinople.
Although the newly elected patriarch inherited a demoralised church, he brought such energy and passion to his office that membership quickly rose to numbers not known since the disputes of the fifth and sixth centuries that divided Christians in Egypt between the Greek Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox traditions.
Patriarch Petros was born Petros Papapetrou in Sichari, a village in a part of northern Cyprus. The son and grandson of Greek Orthodox priests, he entered the Macheras Monastery at the age of 12. When he graduated from the Apostle Barnabas Seminary in Nicosia in 1969, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Chrysostomos of Constantias, now Archbishop of Cyprus. A year later he was invited to Alexandria to join the staff of Patriarch Nicholas VI.
In 1974 he was awarded a Greek government scholarship to study theology at Athens University, and he later pursued postgraduate studies in mission theology in Dublin.
In 1978 he returned to Egypt, where he was ordained a priest by the patriarch and put in charge of the patriarchal office in Cairo. Two years later he was sent to Johannesburg, where he used his position bravely to call for the end of apartheid.
He returned to Egypt in 1983 when he was made Bishop of Babylon and the patriarch's vicar in Cairo, but later that year he was elected Metropolitan of Accra in Ghana and was sent to a diocese embracing 22 countries in west Africa.
In 1991 he was put in charge of the Archdiocese of Irinoupolis, which included Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and he returned to west Africa in 1994 as Metropolitan (Bishop) of Cameroon and West Africa.
These experiences throughout Africa gave the future patriarch a valuable insight into mission methods in a continent that has the fastest-growing Christian population in the world.
He was elected Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All-Africa in 1997 following the death of Patriarch Parthenios III and was enthroned in the ancient see of Alexandria. As Pope and Patriarch he continued to emphasise the priority of missionary work while developing links with other Orthodox churches around the world.
He was also a voice of reason on behalf of the Christian minorities in the Middle East and North Africa, and an advocate of dialogue and mutual respect between Christianity and Islam.
He was one of the presidents of the Middle East Council of Churches and in January 2003 wrote to President Bush urging him not to invade Iraq.
Pointing out that the Middle East is a sensitive region, he said war would be seen as an attack on Islam, and such an impression, however false, would have far-reaching negative consequences for Muslim-Christian relations.
Patriarch Petros died during his first official pilgrimage to Mount Athos, the monastic community that is at the heart of Orthodox spirituality. He was buried this week in St George's Church, Cairo, alongside his predecessors.
Patriach Petros VII (Petros Papapetrou): born September 3rd, 1949; died September 11th, 2004