His Eminence Nicholas (Hatzinikolaou) of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki is the Metropolitan of the Metropolis of Mesogaia and Lavreotiki under the jurisdiction of the Church of Greece. The metropolis is located in southeastern Attica in Greece. He has been metropolitan since 2004.

Life

Metr. Nicholas (Hatzinikolaou) was born on April 13, 1954 in Thessalonica, Greece. He began his post secondary education at the University of Thessalonica where he studied physics. After graduating, he served his obligation with the Greek military services. He then moved to the United States and continued his postgraduate studies in astrophysics at the University of Harvard from which he received a Master of Arts degree, followed by further studies in engineering and biomedical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Additionally, he undertook studies in theology at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts, earning Master's degrees in Theological Studies and Theology.

In addition to his studies, he worked as a researcher and research assistant in the Cardiovascular laboratory at the England Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and taught at Harvard University. During this time he was a scientific colleague at NASA and the Arthur D. Little Company. He returned to Greece about 1987.

Entering a monastic life, he resided at Mount Athos for two years before he was tonsured a monk on March 18, 1989 at the Stomion Monastery at Konitsis in northern Greece at which time he received the name Nicholas. Later, Monk Nicholas joined the Monastery of Simonopetra. Mnk. Nicholas was ordained a deacon on March 19, 1989 and a priest later that year on September 10. From May 1990, Father Nicholas served as parish priest at the Holy Ascension metochion of Simonopetra Monastery in Byrona (Vyronas), a suburb of Athens.

Fr. Nicholas was elected to the episcopate by the Synod of Bishops of the Church of Greece on April 26, 2004. He was consecrated Metropolitan of Mesogaias and Lavreotikis on April 30, 2004 by Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens, assisted in the consecration by fifteen other hierarchs, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens.

Since his ordination as a priest, Metr. Nicholas has continued his involvement in the medical and related arts. From 1991, he taught university courses involving medical, bioethical, and theological content at the medical schools of the Universities of Athens and Crete and the Theological School of Balamand in Lebanon. In 1993, he founded the Greece Center for Biomedical Ethics. In 2003, he received his Doctor of Theology degree in Christian Ethics and Sociology (Ethics) at the Aristotle University of Thessalonica. He also served as the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics. Since 1998, he has been the President of the Synodical Bioethics Committee of the Church of Greece.

Succession box:

Nicholas (Hatzinikolaou) of Mesogaia Preceded by:

Agathonikos (Filippotis) Metropolitan of Mesogaia

2004 - Present Succeeded by:

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