From Samos to Soho: The Unorthodox Life of Joseph Georgirenes, a Greek Archbishop

Until now, Georgirenes has been best known for having established the first Greek Orthodox church in London in Soho, and for publishing a detailed account of the condition and practices of the Orthodox church living under Ottoman rule. For the first time this biography reveals the extraordinary further adventures of this much-travelled priest.

John Penrose Barron was a classical scholar and Philhellene, educated at Clifton College and Balliol College, Oxford. He was Professor of Greek at King’s College London and Director of the Institute of Classical Studies and, subsequently, Master of St Peter’s College, Oxford. His DPhil thesis on the history of Samos in the Archaic period led him to Georgirenes’ account of the island of Samos published in 1677, which he found in the library of Balliol College. John Barron had completed all but one chapter of this biography when he died in 2008.