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The Very Reverend Dr. Joachim Cotsonis

BS, University of Maryland
MDiv, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
MA, Pennsylvania State University
MLIS, Simmons College
PhD, Pennsylvania State University

The Very Rev. Dr. Cotsonis is the Director of the Archbishop Iakovos Library and Learning Resource Center at Hellenic College Holy Cross and a Byzantine art historian. His expertise is in the following fields of Byzantine Art: liturgical arts, manuscript illumination, religious iconography of Byzantine lead seals, and Christian iconography. He is one of two leading scholars in North America on Byzantine lead seals. The seals are the richest body of evidence for the iconography of the saintly figures and their cult in Byzantium, and key documents for the study of both orthodox piety and the political use of religious art. Beyond numerous articles on these matters, he is the author of a book, Byzantine Figural Processional Crosses, which is now regarded as the standard work on the subject. Before coming to Holy Cross, the Very Rev. Dr. Cotsonis was an Assistant Bibliographer and Museum Exhibition Associate at Dumbarton Oaks Library, Harvard Center for Byzantine Studies. He has served on the Governing Board and the Program Committee of the Annual Byzantine Studies Conference and was a Voted Member of the U.S. National Committee for Byzantine Studies. In April of 2007, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Art History of The Pennsylvania State University. Most recently, he participated in the 3rd International Sigillographic Workshop for the Digital Cataloguing of Byzantine Lead Seals (SigiDoc Workshop) held at Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington, DC, from 8-11 July 2011.

Dr. Helen C. Evans

Mary and Michael Jaharis Curator for Byzantine Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

BA, Newcomb College of Tulane University
MA, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
PhD, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

Dr. Helen C. Evans is a specialist in Early Christian, Byzantine, Armenian and Crusader Art. She has been a member of the curatorial staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1991. She opened the Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Byzantine Art at the Met in 2000 and expanded them in 2008. Among Dr. Evans' curatorial exhibitions at the Museum are The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era (843 – 1261) and Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557). In spring 2012, her exhibition Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition (7th – 9th Century) opened at the Museum. Dr. Evans has taught at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, Columbia University, Hunter College, the University of Chicago and Oberlin College and published widely in Europe and America. She is a member of the Saint Catherine Foundation and the Scientific Committee for the Exhibition of the Religious Treasures of the New Sacristy of the Holy Monastery. Dr. Evans has been chair of the Editorial Board of the Art Bulletin and is a member of the Nominating Committee of the College Art Association. She is a founding member of the American Association of Museum Curators and currently vice-president. She was chosen the Newcomb Alumna of the Year in 2005 and has been presented with the American Hellenic Institute's Hellenic Heritage Achievement Award; the Hellenic American Women's Council's Aristeon Award; and the Axion Award of Excellence.

The Reverend Dr. Thomas FitzGerald,
Dean of Holy Cross SOT

A. B., Suffolk University
S.T.M., Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
MTh, Boston University, School of Theology
ThD, University of Thessaloniki, School of Theology

The Rev. Dr. Thomas FitzGerald is the current dean of Holy Cross School of Theology and Professor of Church History and Historical Theology. The Rev. Dr. FitzGerald served as the senior representative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Archdiocese of America in his function as executive director of the Unity and Renewal Programme of the World Council of Churches. He has also served as executive secretary and member of the Orthodox-Roman Catholic Bilateral Consultation in North America.

In his teaching, research, and writings, he has a particular interest in the issues of division and reconciliation which are reflected especially in the councils of the Church as well as in ecumenical dialogues. His recent book, The Ecumenical Movement: An Introductory History, addresses many of these issues. He is also an editor of the Orthodox Theological Review.

Dr. Evie Zachariades-Holmberg

BA, University of Athens
MA, Boston University
PhD, Boston University

Dr. Evie Holmberg is a professor of Classics and Ecclesiastical Greek at Hellenic College and Holy Cross School of Theology and adjunct professor of Modern Greek Studies at Boston University. She joined the Faculties of Hellenic College and Holy Cross in 1979 and she holds a joint appointment in both Schools since 1993, and has served at Boston University since 2006. Dr. Holmberg worked as director of research projects and art conservator at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum, at the Los Angeles County Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Her work and publications include sample analysis of works of art for the determination of their dating, provenance and history of restoration, translations and commentary of Greek texts of Classical, Hellenistic, Byzantine and Modern Greek origin, as well as diachronic and comparative historical studies.

Dr. Ioli Kalavrezou

University of Hamburg, Germany
BA, University of California, Berkeley
MA, University of California, Berkeley
PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Ioli Kalavrezou is professor of Byzantine Art History. She has also held professorships at UCLA and the University of Munich. She sits on the board of Senior Fellows of Dumbarton Oaks and is a member of the Dumbarton Oaks editorial board. She has served as a member of the editorial board of the College Art Association (1990-94), as a member of the board of directors of the International Center of Medieval Art (1982-1985), and as President of the Byzantine Studies Conference (1981-1983) and President of the U.S. International Committee of Byzantine Studies (1991-1996). Several of her studies concern the cult of the Virgin Mary and the everyday world of the Byzantines, especially women. Her more recent book, Byzantine Women and their World, published in 2003 accompanied an exhibition with the same title.

Dr. Demetrios S. Katos,
Dean of Hellenic College

BA, New York University
MDiv, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
MA and PhD, The Catholic University of America

Demetrios S. Katos is Dean of Hellenic College and Associate Professor of Religious Studies. He has been on the faculty since 2000, offering courses in theology, history, and religion. Dean Katos is a Board Member of the Stephen and Catherine Pappas Patristics Institute of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and he has served as Treasurer and Vice-President of the Orthodox Theological Society in America. From 2004-2010, he was a Lecturer in the Department of Theology at Boston College where he taught courses in Eastern Orthodox theology. Dean Katos' research is devoted to the theology, history, and intellectual culture of Christian antiquity. He specializes in early Christian spiritual and mystical traditions and was named a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology. He is the author of Palladius of Helenopolis: The Origenist Advocate (Oxford University Press, 2011).

Dr. Lily Macrakis,
Chairperson of the Board

BA, University of Athens
MA, Harvard University
PhD, Harvard University

Dr. Lily Macrakis is the Special Counselor to the President of Hellenic College Holy Cross since 2011 and Professor Emerita of European and Greek History at Hellenic College. Previously she was the Academic Dean and Professor of European and Greek History at Hellenic College (2002 - 2010). She was chair of the Department of History at Regis Collge in Weston, MA. She has been a visiting professor at Boston College, the University of Crete, and Harvard University. As a Bunting Institute Fellow in Cambridge and a Fulbright Scholar in Greece, she published a study on the Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos, for which she was awarded the Biography Prize by the Academy of Athens. She has published many articles and essays and edited a number of books on Modern Greek History. She has also served as President of the Modern Greek Studies Association and as Chairperson of its biennial symposia. Through her work and publications she has hoped to promote Hellenic Studies in the United States.

Dr. James C. Skedros,
Cantonis Professor of Byzantine Studies
and Professor of Early Christianity

BA, University of Utah
MTS, Harvard Divinity School
ThM, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology
ThD, Harvard Divinity School

James C. Skedros is the Michael G. and Anastasia Cantonis Professor of Byzantine Studies and Professor of Early Christianity at Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Brookline, MA. His research areas include popular religious practices in Late Antiquity and Byzantium, history of the Byzantine church, Byzantine hagiography, pilgrimage, and Christian and Muslim relations. As a Fulbright Scholar, he has conducted field and archaeological research in Thessaloniki, Greece, related to the veneration of St. Demetrios. He has served as co-chair for the Eastern Orthodox Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion as well as secretary for the Orthodox Theological Society in America. His publications include "Festivals, Shrines, and the 'Undistinguished Mob'" in Byzantine Christianity: A People's History of Christianity (2006); "The Heroikos and Popular Christianity in the Third Century," in Philostratus's Heroikos: Religion and Cultural Identity in the Third Century C.E. (2004); "The Cappadocian Fathers on the Veneration of the Martyrs" in Studia Patristica (2001); and St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki: Civic Patron and Divine Protector (1999).