Nikolaos Mitropolitis Mesogaias kai Layreotikis

His Eminence Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki was born in Thessaloniki in 1954. He studied in the Physics Department of Aristotle University and continued with postgraduate studies in Astrophysics and Mechanical Engineering in the USA, at Harvard University and MIT respectively. Having also obtained a PhD in Biomedical Technology from the same universities, he pursued a deeper study of theological science, earning two related postgraduate degrees from the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. In 1989, upon returning to Greece, Father Nikolaos spent two years at Mount Athos and then at the Holy Monastery of Stomio in Konitsa. He was subsequently ordained as a deacon and priest by the late Metropolitan Sebastianos of Dryinoupolis, Pogoniani, and Konitsa. From May 1990 until his ordination as a Bishop, he served as the steward at the Holy Metochion of the Ascension of the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petra at Mount Athos. In February 2003, he was awarded a doctorate in Theology in the field of Christian Ethics and Sociology (Bioethics) from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Since 1991, he has been teaching university courses on related subjects at the Medical Schools of the Universities of Athens and Crete, as well as at the Balamand Theological School in Lebanon. In 1993, he founded the first Center for Biomedical Ethics and Deontology in Greece and is a member of numerous ecclesiastical and other committees related to this field.