His Grace Bishop Emilianos Of Meloa

His Grace Bishop Emilianos of Meloa was born on the island of Kalymnos in 1971. He studied at the “First” Primary School and at the “First Nikephorian” High School in Kalymnos, before studing at the School of Physiotherapy in Thessaloniki. In 1989, after only two months in the city, he visited Mount Athos where he met Saint Paisios and also became acquainted and connected with the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petra and its Abbot, Elder Aimilianos of blessed memory. At the end of 1990, he received a blessing from Elder Aimilianos to become a novice monk at the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petra and on the 14th November 1993, he was tonsured a Great Schema Monk by Elder Aimilianos.

In 1999 he was admitted to the School of Pastoral and Social Theology in Thessaloniki from which he graduated four years later with an “A” grade degree.

Following the wish of his Elder, to establish a new monastery, and with the blessing of the successor, Elder Elisaios, after 14 continuous years at the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petra, he turned to Archbishop Stylianos of Australia for direction because, on the one hand, he knew the Archbishop from his visits to Mount Athos and, on the other hand, because all of his mother’s relatives were in Australia. He visited Australia at the end of 2003 at 33 years of age.

He was ordained a deacon by Archbishop Stylianos on 26th October 2004 at the Parish of St Demetrios, Salisbury, in Adelaide. In December of the same year, he was transferred to Perth to establish the Holy Monastery of Saint John of the Mountain, where he was ordained to the priesthood and consecrated as Abbot of the Holy Monastery, on 7th January 2005 by His Grace Bishop Nikandros, then Bishop of Dorylaion and currently Metropolitan of Irinoupolis. He was made a Spiritual Father by Bishop Nikandros on 23rd March 2008 and, since then, with the blessing of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia, he has travelled to Brisbane and Darwin for the Holy Sacrament of Confession.

He was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite by the late Archbishop Stylianos at the Holy Monastery of St John of the Mountain on 6th September 2009.

On 28th October 2019, His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia invited him to Sydney and elevated him to the position of the Chancellor of the Holy Archdiocese of Australia at the Cathedral of the Annunciation of our Lady. Since then, he has been carrying out his duties as Chancellor at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, also being the Chairman of the GO Youth, GO Family and Friends and GO Teens initiatives of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia in NSW.

On 28th November 2019, he was unanimously elected by the Holy and Sacred Synod of our Ecumenical Patriarchate as Bishop of Meloa and was ordained a Bishop on Christmas Day of the same year at the Cathedral of the Annunciation of our Lady, in Sydney, by His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia.

In 2021 he created the  "Orthodoxy" App, an Application for smart devices, to assist in making the Spirituality, the Mission and the Ethos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia known within Australia and around the world, with modern technological and youth friendly means.

In December 2021 he was appointed by His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia, Vicar General of the Archdiocesan District of Brisbane.