Description
Archbishop Stylianos S Harkianakis was born in Crete, 1935. He studied theology in Constantinople and received his Doctorate in Divinity from the University of Athens, becoming associate professor of theology in Thessalonika (1969-75). In 1975 he was elected as Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia. Harkianakis has published 28 collections of poetry in Greek. In 1973 he was awarded the prestigious Herder Prize for his contribution to European culture. In 1980 he received the Academy of Athens Prize for Poetry. Many of his poems have appeared in international magazines. In 1994 his first Australian poetry collection was published. In 2000 the Archbishop was invited, and accepted, to become Patron of the annual poetry award established by the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, to which he gave the name ‘Romanos Melodist’, in recognition of the greatest Christian poet within undivided Christendom of the first millennium. His see and residence are in Sydney, Australia.
