On 7th August 2017, His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, welcomed with particular joy a new African member of the Clergy to the Patriarchal See. He is Fr. Athanasios Kayembe, who through the past nine years served as a Priest at the Church of St Athanasios in Ano Kypseli, a Dependency of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, beside His Eminence George, Metropolitan of Guinea, Representative of the Alexandrian Primate in Athens. His Beatitude Patriarch Theodoros II, announced the appointment of Fr. Athanasios Kayembe, as the one in Charge of the Patriarchal Library, at the See of the Patriarchate in Alexandria. The new Priest will serve as Parish Priest at the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of St Savvas the Sanctified, in Alexandria. The Congo, as one of the historically first Orthodox Metropolises of Africa, is the hope of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, offering skilled and experienced staff to the Throne of the Saint and Evangelist Mark and the Missionary field.
Biography of Archimandrite Fr. Athanasios Kayembe
The Very Reverend Archimandrite Athanasios Kayembe, was born in Kananga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1982. He studied at the “Light of the Nations” Institute at the Mission in Kananga, where he was taught Pedagogy, at the State University in Kinshasa where he studied Psychology and Educational Sciences, and then, with a scholarship from the Greek Government he studied at the Theological Faculty of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where following his pre-degree studies, he received his Master’s in the Field of Patristic Studies, History of Dogmatics and Symbolism, through a scholarship from the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece. He is a Doctoral Candidate in the Field of Social Theology from the same University, on the topic: “Kimbanguism, an African Religion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo”. He was tonsured a Monk by His Eminence Ignatios, Metropolitan of Pentapolis (as Metropolitan of Central Africa), ad by Venerable order of His Beatitude, was ordained Deacon and Priest by His Eminence George, Metropolitan of Guinea, who awarded him the office of Archimandrite. He served the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa from time to time in the Missions, in the Congo and Sierra Leone. Called by His Beatitude to the See of the Patriarchate in Alexandria, he was appointed as Responsible for the Patriarchal Library on 7th August 2017. He speaks French, English and Greek.
