Greek Orthodox Church leaders meeting in Istanbul voted Tuesday to elect Bishop Gerasimos Michaleas as the new metropolitan of San Francisco.
Michaleas, 59, will replace the longtime Greek Orthodox leader, Metropolitan Anthony Gergiannakis, who died on Christmas Day.
After his enthronement, the new leader of the Metropolis of San Francisco will preside over 70 Greek Orthodox parishes in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.
The Greek-born metropolitan-elect was chosen from a list of three candidates whose names were submitted to the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the former Turkish capital now known as Istanbul.
Michaleas was the top vote-getter in an election one week ago in New York. Voting were Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis, the primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, and eight metropolitans from across the United States.
Michaleas has most recently served as the chief secretary of the body of U.S. church leaders known as the Holy Eparchial Synod. He has held that post since his elevation to bishop at Annunciation Cathedral in Boston in 2002.
"We are thrilled at his appointment," said the Rev. Michael Pappas, pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in San Francisco. "He is very well-rounded -- a great respecter of history, a good listener, a psychologist by training.''
Michaleas was born on Aug. 2, 1945, in Kalamata, Greece, where he completed his primary and secondary education.
In September 1969, he received his bachelor's degree from Hellenic College, Brookline, Mass., and continued his studies at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology there. He was ordained in 1979 and appointed archdeacon to His Eminence Archbishop Iakovos of Chicago.
In 1993, he earned a doctorate in psychology at Boston College School of Education. His dissertation was a study of intellectual deficits in a severely alcoholic population.
In 1990, he was appointed dean of students at Hellenic College, Holy Cross, a post that he held until 1998, when he became director of admissions and records.
The Rev. Paul Schroeder of the Metropolis of San Francisco was a seminarian at the Holy Cross School of Theology when Michaleas headed the Office of Student Life there.
"Everybody loved his presence,'' Schroeder recalled. "Some seminarians were getting lax about chapel, and he would go down the hall and pound on the doors -- but in a good-natured way. He was a well-loved figure.''