I. Metropolis

His Eminence Metropolitan of Philippi, Neapolis & Thassos, Mr. Stefanos, in the world Aristotle Tolios of Anthony and Evangelia, was born in Eleftheroupoli, Kavala, in 1960. He received his degree from the Department of Theology of the Theological School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1983.

In 1984 he became a monk at the Holy Monastery of Saint Theodora of Thessaloniki, and on February 15, 1984 he was ordained a Deacon by the blessed Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, Mr. Panteleimon Chrysofaki. He served as a deacon at the holy churches of Panagia of the Right and of the patron saint of Saint Demetrius, simultaneously assuming the Secretariat of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki. For a decade he also served as Abbot Councilor of the Holy Monastery of Saint Theodora of Thessaloniki.

On December 27, 1984, he was ordained a Presbyter by the late Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, His Grace Panteleimon Chrysofakis, receiving the office of archimandrite and was appointed as the priestly head and chairman of the ecclesiastical committees of the Holy Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles of Thessaloniki. In 1994, he was transferred and appointed chairman of the committees of the Holy Pilgrimage and Cathedral Church of the Holy Wisdom of Thessaloniki. Also, since 1989, he was appointed responsible vicar of the Student Halls of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. During his priestly ministry, he developed a remarkable spiritual, preaching and pastoral work. He speaks English and French.

With the blessing of the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, Mr. Anthimos Roussas, he continued to serve as General Secretary of the Holy Metropolis of Thessaloniki, a position he had held since 1984, and on June 10, 2010, he assumed the duties of its Protosyngellos. On October 6, 2017, he was elected by the venerable Hierarchy of the Most Holy Church of Greece as Metropolitan of the Holy and Apostolic Metropolis of Philippi, Naples and Thassos, and was ordained Bishop on October 8, 2017 in the holy pilgrimage church of the patron saint of Thessaloniki, Saint Demetrius the Myrrh-Bearer.