Ioannis CHatzifotis

I. M. Chatzifotis was born in 1944 in Alexandria, Egypt, to parents from the Dodecanese, and passed away in July 2006 in Athens. He completed his secondary education at the Averofeio and studied philology in Athens and sociology of religion in Catania, Sicily. He served as the Grand Archon Hypomnemonographer of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Grand Archon Hieromnemon of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem. From 1982 to 1998, he was an advisor and press and public relations representative for Archbishop Seraphim of Athens, and from 1983, he was the director of the official publication of the Church of Greece, "Ecclesiastical Truth." He was also the director and press representative of the Holy Synod from 1984 to 1995. Chatzifotis was involved in poetry, book criticism, radio, television, and theater. His studies have been published in various historical, literary, and scientific journals. His multifaceted writing includes presentations at international scientific conferences, publications in honorary volumes and yearbooks, and books on modern Greek history, such as those concerning Anthimos Gazis, Th. A. Paschidis, N. Dimitrakopoulos, Mount Athos, Patmos and Meteora, the Dodecanese, the national struggles of the church, Gregory V, and Alexandria. He brought to light numerous unpublished documents from the General State Archives and other historical archives. His work "Alexandria (The Two Centuries of Modern Hellenism, 19th-20th)" was awarded by the Academy of Athens. He was a member of the Society of Byzantine Studies, the National Society of Greek Writers, the Society of Historical Studies on Modern Hellenism, the Philological Association "Parnassos," a regular partner of the Society of Byzantine Studies, the Mediterranean Academy of Rome, the Greek Bibliographic Society, vice president of the Acropolis Appeal, general secretary of the Union of Journalists - Owners of Scientific Periodical Press, a member of the Greek Society of Public Relations Consultants, and deputy general secretary of the Greek Committee of Friends of the Library of Alexandria. He was a regular contributor to almost all daily Athenian newspapers and magazines: "Ethnos," "Nea," "Eleftherotypia," "Vradyni," "Estia," "Kathimerini," "Apogevmatini," "Akropolis," "Eikones," "Epikaira," "History Illustrated," and a columnist for "Eleftheros Typos" in the supplement "Orthodoxy and Hellenism."