Bartholomew I of Constantinople

Born Dimitrios Archontonis on 29 February 1940 in a village on the island of Imbros, he studied theology and was ordained a priest, eventually teaching at the Theological School of Halki. He rose through the ranks as Metropolitan of Philadelphia and then Chalcedon, shaping policy within the Holy and Sacred Synod before his election on 22 October 1991. His three decades at the helm have been marked by outreach: formal visits to Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, and Muslim leaders rarely engaged by predecessors, and persistent advocacy for religious freedom, human rights, and environmental protection - work that earned him the nickname "The Green Patriarch". In 2018 he granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, invoking ancient canons from the first ecumenical councils; the Moscow Patriarchate severed communion in response, fracturing the Orthodox world along a fault line that remains open.