Greek Orthodox primate is laid to rest

BROOKLINE -- Archbishop Iakovos, who for 37 years led the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas, was laid to rest yesterday in Brookline, behind the chapel at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

Longtime friends remembered the archbishop, who died Sunday at age 93, as a charismatic leader who guided the church through a difficult transformation and championed civil rights. They also remembered a man who liked to cook, loved the Red Sox, and had a knack for Scrabble.

''He was an aristocrat who was down to earth," said Metropolitan Methodios, the church's senior official in New England, who laughed and cried yesterday as he read a nine-minute eulogy for his mentor.

Archbishop Iakovos headed the Archdiocese of North and South America from 1959 until 1996, leading an estimated 2 million Greek Orthodox believers. He died of a pulmonary ailment at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut, according to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

During the three-hour service, hundreds of mourners teemed outside the chapel, waiting for the chance to approach the open casket. The archbishop was dressed in white vestments. A silver Bible lay on his chest, and a golden spire was tucked under his left arm. As incense wafted through the sanctuary, the mourners kissed the hands and face of their former leader, and spoke about a man who never forgot anyone he met.

''He had an amazing memory," said Sophia Nibi, spokeswoman for the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston. ''If he saw you today, six months ago he would remember you. He had a photographic memory."

Archbishop Iakovos frequently took vacations on Martha's Vineyard and ''could sit in the sun all day," Methodios said.

''Anyone who ever played Scrabble with him on Martha's Vineyard learned words that weren't yet found in the dictionary," Methodios said. ''You see, he was a perfectionist. He always played to win. And when the score was close and you thought you finally had a chance to win a Scrabble match with him, Archbishop Iakovos would come up with a word that you knew didn't exist -- before he assured you that it did!"

The archbishop was born Demetrios Coucouzis in Turkey in 1911. He took the name Iakovos, which is Greek for James, in 1934 when he became a deacon. He came to the United States in 1939 and was ordained as a priest in Lowell in 1940. He earned a second master's degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1945.

As archbishop, he led an ecumenical movement in the church, becoming the first Greek Orthodox archbishop to meet with a Roman Catholic pope in 350 years. He also spent nine years as a president of the World Council of Churches and in 1965 marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala. He met with every US president from Eisenhower through Clinton.

''If this man had not been a priest, he would have been one heck of an ambassador for a country," Methodios said in an interview.

During his long tenure, Archbishop Iakovos led the Greek Orthodox Americans into greater contact with mainstream America. But he also upset some in the church by encouraging greater use of English in the liturgy, on grounds that few young Greek-Americans speak Greek.

Yesterday's service was read mostly in Greek, with traditional songs and prayers, but Methodios delivered the eulogy in English and Greek.

The archbishop's funeral was held on Thursday in New York. Greek Orthodox archbishops from around the world attended yesterday's burial, as did several members of the Greek Parliament.

Before he died, Archbishop Iakovos said he wanted to be buried at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, where he was a professor, dean, and the chairman of the Board of Trustees, and where a library and a professorship are named after him.

''He inspired us all to serve our faith, to serve our church. We were in a period of time when we were the children of immigrants, and he wanted us to do our best to honor our parents and our background," said Marica Arvanites, who was a Sunday school student of the archbishop and now is the president of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England. ''He was a man of great vision."

Matt Viser can be reached at viser@globe.com.