Compiled from various sources
Saint Sylvester, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria (1569–1590), was the first Patriarch of Alexandria of Cretan origin. His baptismal name was Sergius. He was a disciple of the renowned teacher Eliavolcus in Constantinople. Later, he served as abbot of the Holy Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Agarathos, Crete, from where he departed to Alexandria.
In Alexandria, he was appointed Chief Deacon of the Patriarchate and was entrusted with the preservation of the ancient manuscripts of the Patriarchal Library.
With the election of Sylvester as Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria in 1569, a period of eighty continuous years of Cretan presence upon the Alexandrian Throne began.
During his patriarchate, the condition of the Church and of the Christians in Egypt was most difficult. After the defeat of the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 by the allied forces of Venice, Spain, and Italy, massacres were unleashed by the Turks against the Christians in Egypt.
At that same time, with the backing of Western Catholic powers, the Roman Catholic Church intensified its missionary activity in Egypt. It circulated doctrinal texts foreign to the Orthodox Faith and established Roman Catholic schools to promote Latinization.
Pope Sylvester strongly resisted the Roman Catholic proselytism and steadfastly strengthened the Orthodox Faith with zeal and discernment. The Roman Church sought to persuade the Orthodox to accept the Gregorian Calendar, but both Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople and Pope Sylvester of Alexandria firmly rejected it.
(Later, on 19 June 1928, by Patriarchal Synodal decree, Pope Meletios II Metaxakis [1926–1935] replaced the Julian Calendar with the Gregorian Calendar for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, transferring the Feast from 7 January to 25 December.)
After these events, Pope Sylvester began to travel — some say out of fear, others for broader ecclesiastical reasons. He journeyed to Jerusalem, Constantinople, Patmos, and Mount Athos, and participated in various synods outside Egypt.
In 1579, while in Jerusalem, he met Meletios Pegas, who at the time was a monk at Sinai. He ordained him deacon and later presbyter, sending him to Alexandria as the first priest and appointing him as Dean of the Patriarchal Synod, while he himself continued his travels.
Later, in Lindos of Rhodes, Meletios again met the now elderly Pope Sylvester. There he learned that Sylvester had appointed him as his successor to the Patriarchal Throne. Though Pegas initially refused, considering the ordination irregular, he nonetheless obeyed his spiritual father’s command and returned to Alexandria as Patriarchal Exarch.
Saint Sylvester fell asleep in the Lord in 1590 at the dependency of the Monastery of Sinai in Lindos. On the 5th of August of that same year, Meletios Pegas was elected Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria.
During the patriarchate of Pope Sylvester, two Russian embassies visited Egypt in an effort to strengthen relations between the Ottoman authority and the Patriarchate of Alexandria, offering donations to the Patriarchate.
On October 8, 2025, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa resolved to glorify Patriarch Sylvester among the Saints. His memory is celebrated on February 19.
† Metropolitan Nikolaos,
Metropolitan of Hermopolis (Tanta) and its Dependencies,
Patriarchal Commissioner for Arabic Affairs
