Biography
Dr. Christopher Veniamin was born and raised in London, England, of Greek Cypriot parents. A love for the Church and a desire to learn more about the Orthodox faith came as a direct result of growing up in the spiritual climate of the Holy Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist (Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, England), founded by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov.
His formal training in theology began at the School of Theology of the University of Thessalonica (Macedonia, Greece), under such eminent scholars as Giorgios I. Mantzarides, Professor of Christian Ethics and Sociology; the Very Reverend John S. Romanides, Professor of Dogmatics; and Ioannis M. Fountoulis, Professor of Liturgics.
Following the successful completion of his studies in Thessalonica, he took up doctoral studies at Pembroke College, University of Oxford, under the aegis of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Kallistos T. Ware, Bishop of Diokleia, at the University of Oxford. His thesis, The Transfiguration of Christ in Greek Patristic Literature: From Irenaeus of Lyons to Gregory Palamas, is a diachronic study of the meaning of the Transfiguration of Christ in patristic theology. He is also the founding member and first president of the Patristic and Byzantine Society, based at Oxford.
Dr. Veniamin is also a keen cantor and holds the four-year Degree in Byzantine Music from the celebrated School of Greek Ecclesiastical Music in Thessalonica.
Dr. Veniamin has been a resident faculty member of St. Tikhon's since Fall 1994, offering courses in Patristic Theology, the Philosophical Background to Patristic Theology, the Ascetic Ethos of the Church Fathers, and Liturgical Theology, and has served as Chair of the Faculty Development Committee, as Faculty Representative to the Library Committee, and is currently a member of the Academic Affairs Committee.
He most recently edited and co-translated the three-volume work, The Homilies of Saint Gregory Palamas, for which he wrote the introduction and detailed notes. Forthcoming publications include a substantially reworked version of his doctoral dissertation, Metamorphosis: The Transfiguration of Christ in Greek Patristic Literature from the post-Apostolic period to Gregory Palamas.
During its October 2005 meeting, the Board of Trustees of St. Tikhon's Seminary voted unanimously to promoted Dr. Veniamin to the rank of full Professor of Patristics, in recognition of his outstanding service to the Seminary for the past eleven years and his distinguished record of teaching, research, and publication.
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