Archimandrite Constantine Yanney, Emeritus

Fr. Constantine was born in 1926 in the Iskenderon region of Antioch, in what is today Turkey.  As a young man he studied Literature and Philosophy in Damascus, Syria.  In 1960 he moved to Greece to enroll in the University of Athens and was awarded a degree in Theology.  He returned to Damascus in 1968 and was ordained a priest by the Antiochian Patriarch Theodosius.  Father Constantine served as the pastor of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus until 1989 when he was appointed pastor of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Baghdad, Iraq. 

In 1989 Fr. Constantine was elevated to the dignity of Archimandrite by Metropolitan Constantine, Archbishop of Baghdad and Kuwait.  In 1990, Fr. Constantine arrived in Boston to visit his sisters.  That year, hostilities broke out in the Middle East following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and the subsequent Gulf War of 1991.  Conditions in Baghdad made it impossible for Fr. Constantine to return home.  He was received into the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America in 1991 and the Immigration and Naturalization Service granted him permission to remain in the United States.  His Eminence Metropolitan Philip officially appointed Fr. Constantine to serve as an assistant priest at St. George Orthodox Church of Boston in 1992. 

Today, Fr. Constantine serves as Pastor Emeritus at St. George presiding at the Sunday Matins and assisting at Divine Liturgy.  Fr. Constantine is a gifted writer and poet and has published several books in Arabic on Theology and Philosophy.  He is a regular contribution to the local Arabic language newspaper.