Stephanus III
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Patriarch Stephanus III (born Stephan Monomachus) is the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in Pantocratoria, and is recognised by some as the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church world-wide, the Patriarch of Constantinople. He was elected and crowned Patriarch by the Synod of Constantinople, a group of twenty nine Pantocratorian Greek rite bishops. In doing so, the Synod created a schism between the Roman Catholic Church in Pantocratoria, and the Greek Orthodox Church in Pantocratoria.
Stephan Monomachus was the fourth child of Petros and Eleni Monomachus. He grew up on a farm just outside of Drakopolis. His family was very devout. They were Greek speaking farmers, and Petros was an early member of the Constantinople League. Although outwardly they were Roman Catholic, they were secretly Greek Orthodox, and attended underground Mass spoken in the Greek rite. At the age of twenty, Monomachus entered the Seminary of Saint Andrew in Drakopolis and became a priest, joining a large number of secretly Greek Orthodox graduates of the Seminary of Saint Andrew.
He became Archbishop of Drakopolis in 1984, after the better part of twenty years as a parish priest in the rural communities outside the city. The people of the rural parishes in the Archdiocese of Drakopolis were, like Monomachus, primarily Greek speaking farmers, and the majority were advocates of the introduction of the Greek rite, which had become an ethnic issue for Greek speaking Pantocratorians. He became active in the Constantinople League's various charity activities and the political campaign for the reintroduction of both the Greek language and rite. This campaign would ultimately achieve its aims thanks to the Pantocratorian Socialist Alliance/Constantinople Party Coalition Government in 2005.
After the reintroduction of the Greek rite in thirty four Pantocratorian dioceses, Monomachus was instrumental in organising the Greek rite bishops whom he knew to be secretly Greek Orthodox in sentiment to form the Synod of Constantinople. The Synod met in Drakopolis in September, 2005, and elected him Patriarch Stephanus III.
