Archimandrite Chrysóstomos Papasarantópoulos (Greek: Χρυσόστομος Παπασαραντόπουλος, 1903–1972) was a pioneering missionary of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Congo.
Afterwards, he went to Kalamata, to the then well-known Hermitage of Panagoulakis (Holy Monastery of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary),[note 1] known for its strict asceticism; here he became a monk.
[note 2] He then came to Athens and joined the Petraki Monastery, where his main duty was that of father confessor for people of all ages and walks of life, becoming well respected and loved.
[2] In the event, after many years of faithful service in his native country, he experienced a strong leading, a true "Macedonian Call,"[note 4] to go as a missionary to Africa.
However, during a trip to the Holy Land, he met the Patriarch of Alexandria Christophoros II from whom he obtained the blessing,[note 5] thus resolving to continue the mission.
In 1960 Archimandrite Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos went to Kampala, Uganda, where he worked for ten years before moving to Zaire to begin a new mission there.
Likewise the Black Orthodox are also scattered in tens and hundreds of miles in the four cardinal directions...He began an extensive correspondence program, writing to friends, relatives and acquaintances who might be able to help in any way.
Thus he slowly started to receive aid from Greece, Europe and America in the form of packages of clothing, cheques, utensils and other items.
I speak it together mixed with English, and I am understood fairly well.Learning a new language at that age was not easy, but within a year of arriving in Africa, Father Chrysostomos could preach in Swahili.
Although he made constant appeals for assistance in his correspondence to Greece, inviting others to join the mission, he received no response.
[3] For 10 years, Father Chrysostomos laboured in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, but also desired to preach in the country which is today called the Democratic Republic of Congo.
[7][8] She agreed to join him and moved to Congo, where she engaged in the mission's effort, succeding her uncle as the sole Eastern Orthodox missionary in the area for a time, after the death of Chrysostomos.
Numerous obstacles confronted him: racism, language barriers, primitive living conditions, lack of funds, limitations imposed upon him by superiors, ill health, poor diet, etc.
[2] After labouring for twelve years across Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Congo, and having learned the Swahili and French languages at a relatively old age, he died in Africa having started a huge task, which was continued with great success.
His life was a continuous round of traveling, preaching, baptizing, planting churches and celebrating the Divine Liturgy.
Orthodox history teaches that like prayer, the life of "a righteous man has great power in its effect" (James 5:16).
However the seemingly humble ministry of this one missionary, advanced in age before he began, has had a direct effect on the Eastern Orthodox Church in both Greece and the United States.
Through the writings and influence of Yannoulatos, now a bishop and professor at the University of Athens, and this new movement, interest in missions has greatly expanded in Greece over the past twenty years.