25 years ago: the death of Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Demetrios I

On October 2, 1991, Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Demetrios I died at the age of 77. Demetrios I, born Demetrios Papadopoulos, was Metropolitan Bishop of Imvros before succeeding Athenagoras I as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Demetrios I helped further the ecumenical movement, meeting with two different Archbishops of Canterbury, and proclaiming the establishment of the official theological dialogue between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, then led by Pope John Paul. Pope John Paul received Patriarch Demetrios at the Vatican in 1987, and the two recited the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of the Church in Greek, in a ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica.

Demetrios I was succeeded as Ecumenical Patriarch by Bartholomew I, who has cooperated with Popes Benedict XVI and Francis in furthering the movement toward a one-world religion.