Timeline of Eastern Orthodoxy in Greece (33–717)

Christianity was first brought to the geographical area corresponding to modern Greece by the Apostle Paul, although the church's apostolicity also rests upon St. Andrew who preached the gospel in Greece and suffered martyrdom in Patras, Titus, Paul's companion who preached the gospel in Crete where he became bishop, Philip who, according to the tradition, visited and preached in Athens, Luke the Evangelist who was martyred in Thebes, Lazarus of Bethany, Bishop of Kition in Cyprus, and John the Theologian who was exiled on the island of Patmos where he received the Revelation recorded in the last book of the New Testament.

[1] By the 4th century almost the entire Balkan peninsula constituted the Exarchate of Illyricum which was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome.

[2][3][note 2] The Greek War of Independence of 1821–28 created an independent southern Greece, but created anomalies in ecclesiastical relations since the Ecumenical Patriarch remained under Ottoman tutelage, and in 1850 the Endemousa Synod in Constantinople declared the Church of Greece autocephalous.

[10] The autocephalous Church of Greece is organised into 81 dioceses, however 35 of these – known as the Metropolises of the New Lands – are nominally under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople but are administered as part of the Church of Greece; although the dioceses of Crete, the Dodecanese, and Mount Athos are under the direct jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

[1] The government observes several religious holidays as national holidays including Epiphany, Clean Monday (the start of Great Lent), Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Holy Spirit Day, the Dormition of the Theotokos and Christmas.

Icon of Apostle Paul , Apostle of Greece and Cyprus.
Icon of Apostle Andrew , considered the founder and first bishop of the Church of Byzantium .
icon of St. John the Theologian receiving the Apocalypse on the isle of Patmos (16th century)
St. Marina the Great-Martyr (†286).
Map of the Roman Empire showing the Dioceses created by Diocletian , c. 293 AD., and the four Tetrarchs' zones of influence.
A coin of Constantine (c.337) showing a depiction of his Labarum standard spearing a serpent.
The First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, AD 325.
St. Constantine the Great , Equal-to-the-Apostles (†337).
St. Spyridon , Bishop of Trimythous.
The Three Holy Hierarchs , Basil the Great ( Basil of Caesarea ), Gregory the Theologian ( Gregory of Nazianzus ) and John Chrysostom.
The division of the Empire after the death of Theodosius I , c. 395 AD superimposed on modern borders.
Western Roman Empire
Eastern Roman Empire
St. John Chrysostom , Abp. of Constantinople (398–404).
Map of the Roman Empire with its Dioceses, in 400 AD. The Prefecture of "Eastern Illyricum" ( Illyricum Orientale ) consisted of the Dioceses of Dacia and Macedonia .
Byzantine miniature depicting the Stoudios Monastery and the Propontis (Sea of Marmara).
Eastern Roman Empire c. 477, showing the extent of Koine Greek .
St. Romanos ' vision of the Virgin Mary.
An interior view of Hagia Sophia today.
The Byzantine Empire during its greatest territorial extent under Justinian. c. 550.
The Holy Virgin Blachernitissa , divine protectress of the Byzantine Empire ( 7th century ).
Byzantine Empire by 650; by this year it lost all of its southern provinces except the Exarchate of Carthage.
Map of Justinian's Pentarchy , with almost all of modern Greece under Rome.
Byzantine-Arab naval struggles, c. AD 717–1025.