Monastic and pastoral life in Greece
Chrysostomos spent roughly four decades in monastic and parish service in Greece before his missionary departure. After his tonsure and ordination in the 1920s and his abbacy at Gardiki Monastery, he served at several Messinian houses, including Chrysokellaria Monastery near Koroni, where he established catechetical schools in surrounding villages. His habit of giving away whatever money he received earned him the nickname 'moneyless.'
In 1938 he was summoned to Athens to serve as a confessor for students, joining the Petraki Monastery, where he was ordained archimandrite and for a time served as abbot of the Faneromeni Monastery on Salamis. During the wartime occupation his cell became a place of refuge and assistance for students. In his mid-fifties he pursued formal theological study, earning a high-school diploma and then a degree from the University of Athens, completed in 1959.
Missionary work in Africa
Having encountered Ugandan students in Athens, Chrysostomos resolved to undertake missionary work in Africa. Following a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and securing the blessing of Patriarch Christophoros of Alexandria, he arrived in Kampala, Uganda, in 1960. He learned Swahili, established mission churches, catechized and baptized indigenous converts, prepared candidates for the priesthood, and translated the Divine Liturgy and prayers into Swahili. In 1963 he founded the missionary society 'The Friends of Uganda,' which continues to operate from Thessaloniki.
He extended his work into Kenya and Tanzania, establishing a mission station in Nairobi, and for about ten years labored across East Africa with little outside assistance. In 1970 he moved to the Congo to found the Orthodox mission there, with a presence reported across cities including Kolwezi, Kasenga, Kananga, and Kinshasa. He worked in his final years without financial support and in declining health, sustained, as the sources record, by his faith and love for the people he served.
Relics and shrines
Chrysostomos was initially buried in the cemetery at Kananga in the Congo. On 21 December 1996 his remains were transferred to the garden of the Church of Saint Andrew at the Kananga Missionary Center, and his tomb became a place of pilgrimage for local Christians.
Following his canonization, Patriarch Theodoros II uncovered his relics at Kananga in a ceremony reported in March 2026.
Legacy and glorification
Chrysostomos is regarded as a pioneer of modern Orthodox missionary work in sub-Saharan Africa. In Greece his memory was honored before his canonization: in 1985 the Metropolis of Messinia erected a bust in his honor, and in 1987 the Academy of Athens posthumously awarded him a silver medal.
The Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, under Patriarch Theodoros II, inscribed him among the saints in 2025, assigning his feast to 29 December, the day of his repose. He is commonly given the epithet the new 'Cyril and Methodios' of Africa; Metropolitan Nikiforos of Kinshasa likened him to 'the Papaflessas of the Mission.'
