His Grace Bishop Ignatios of Salona was born in Katerini, Greece, in 1961. He graduated from the Department of History within the School of Philosophy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1984 and later from the Theological School of the same university in 2001.
He earned a Master’s degree in Church History from the Pontificio Istituto Orientale in Rome in 1987. In 1988, he pursued courses in Canon Law at the same institute, supported by a scholarship from the Pontifical Council for the Unity of Christians and residing at the Almo Collegio Capranica.
Between 1988 and 1991, he attended lectures in Byzantine History, Modern Greek Language, and Culture at the University of Cologne. During this time, he also conducted research in German university and church libraries as a scholar of the Conference of German Bishops and the Holy Metropolis of Switzerland.
A monk of the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of Vlatades, he received his monastic name from His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. He was ordained as a deacon in Katerini in 1992 and as a presbyter in 1997 by His Eminence Metropolitan Agathonikos of Kitros and Katerini. He served in the Holy Metropolises of Italy and Kitros and Katerini as a preacher.
In 1995, he was appointed Director of the “Varnaveios Ecclesiastical Library” in Katerini, where he oversaw its organization, equipment, and expansion. From 1995 to 2000, he also worked in secondary and ecclesiastical education as a philologist.
In 2000, he was appointed to the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece by recommendation of His Beatitude Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece. He served as Secretary of the Special Synodal Committee for the Monitoring of European Affairs (2000-2001) and later as Associate of the Synodal Commission for Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian Relations (2001-2005).
Following a Synodal decision, he pursued ecclesiastical diplomacy studies at the Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica in Rome (2003-2005) as a scholar of the “Damianos Hellenism Foundation” and interned at the Belgian College.
From 2005 to 2012, His Grace served at the Office of the Representation of the Church of Greece to the EU in Brussels. In 2009, he accompanied His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece on an official visit to the European Commission to address poverty in Europe.
From October 2005 to February 2006, he trained at the Institute of European Studies at the Université Catholique de Louvain.
He has represented the Church of Greece in numerous missions, assemblies, and conferences, both domestically and internationally.
His Grace has served as the Curator of Culture for Pieria’s historic cultural association, “Estia Pierides Muses.”
His scholarly works include:
- The History of the Holy Metropolis of Kitros (1999, Volume I).
- A Greek translation of Icone Mariane. Storia e culto (1997, Città Nuova Ed.).
- A Greek translation of Reliquiari Bizantini a Venezia by E. Morini, published in Holy Relics of Saints of Our East in Venice (Apostolic Ministry of the Church of Greece, Athens 2005).
- Editor of Katerini: Seventy Years of History, Society, Culture (2001).
He is a member of the “Working Group on European Integration” of the “Church and Society” Committee of the Council of European Churches (CEC) and the “Working Group on Creation Theology” of the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN).
He was elected an Orthodox representative on the Preparatory Committees for the General Assemblies of the Council of European Churches in Lyon (2009) and Budapest (2013). At the Budapest Assembly, he was elected to the Central Committee (New Governing Board).
On November 15th, 2024, His Grace Bishop Ignatios of Salona, the Spiritual Father of the Grand Knight, became the Order’s second Grand Chancellor. In this role, he serves as the most senior official of the Order after the Grand Knight.
Besides his native Greek His Grace speaks English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish fluently.
Authorities and Responsibilities of the Grand Chancellor:
The Grand Chancellor is the most senior aide and advisor to the Grand Knight. Under the authority of the Grand Knight, the Grand Chancellor presides over the executive branch of the Order. The Grand Chancellor is responsible for the representation of the Order to third parties, the carrying out of policy and the internal administration of the Order, as well as the coordination of the activities of the government of the Order between its different administrative bodies. The Grand Chancellor on behalf of the Grand Knight oversees the Grand Priories of the Order. It is a requirement of the Order that the Grand Chancellor be a member of the clergy holding the rank of priest or higher.