Priestmonk Fr. Barnabas, formerly know as Fr. Soterios Hadjimichael, is the man who by the grace of God, established the Parish of Ss. Constantine & Helen in Erdington, Birmingham. Together, with the help of others, he managed to raise enough money to purchase the church property. The property we are referring to is what has become, the Headquarters of the Holy Metropolis of Mercia and the British Isles.

Soterios Hadjimichael, was born in the village of Aradippou, in Cyprus, on the 1st of September 1925. He was the youngest of eight children, he had four sisters and three brothers. At the age of just 17, in 1942, young Soterios, was drawn to the monastic life, and so he went to the famous  Monastery of Stavrovouni, where he stayed for a year at the pre-novice stage, unfortunately though, he left because of the mounting pressure he received from his siblings, despite how things turned out, it is quite clear that he desired to serve the Lord.

 

In October of 1945, he married his wife, who would become Presbyter Alexandra. Just a year later on the 18th October 1946, was when Soterios came to Great Britain, but by himself first. He settled in Birmingham, after spent about a month or so in London, I think had a lot to do with the fact that he also had a brother who was already living in Birmingham since 1938.  The very next year, was when his wife Alexandra also came to Birmingham with their first born child Eftychia, who was just over a year old.

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In Birmingham, Soterios worked as a waiter for ten years, before buying his first Fish & Chips shop. As the years went by, Soterios and Alexandra had eleven children, one of whom, had died in September of 1955 at nine months old, from Gastro-enteritis, his name was Savva.  The children's names from oldest to youngest are: Eftychia, Eugenia, Eleni, Maria, Christodouli, Baby Savva (who we aforementioned), Michael, Eleftheria, Thomas, Savva (another Savva), and Androulla. 

 

On 23 December 1968, tragedy would strike the Hadjimichael household, Soterios, Alexandra and the children would have to face the very sad and unfortunate death of their daughter and sister Eleni, who died from gas poisoning, due to a gas leak in their home's boiler. Eleni was just seven weeks into her marriage and was only 18 years of age. 

 

After many years of working extremely hard to support his family, he slowly witnessed the rest of his children marry and start their own families, and so his family grew and grew all the more, and of course seeing your children's children have children, is in itself a great blessing.

 

Apart from being a very hard working, moral and devoted family man, he was also a devout Christian, who would always attend church services, he was also a chanter for thirty years for two Greek Orthodox churches in Birmingham (of the "Ecumenical Patriarchate"). In his exact words he would often say: "Although I would go to the new calendar churches, my conscience would always rebuke me, and say to me, you hypocrite, you know everything concerning this matter, yet you do nothing about it," this is because, Soterios had heard about the "Old Calendar Church" and that it was the correct Church, even from the time he was in Stavrovouni, where the fathers there would often discuss this matter. What finally drove Soterios to returning to Christ's true Church, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, was when the Greek Orthodox "bishop" Eirineos, allowed a Roman Catholic "priest" recite the Roman Catholic version of the Creed, which obviously differs from the Orthodox Holy Creed. For this who do not know what we are referring to, we are referring to the "FILIOQUE" Heresy of the Roman Catholic "Church." Unlike the Orthodox Church, Roman Catholics preach openly that the Holy Spirit Proceeds for the Father and from the Son, whereas, the Orthodox proclaim, that the Holy Spirit Proceeds from the Father, as was written in the original Nicene Creed in the 4th Century, when the God inspired Holy Fathers affirmed this doctrinal truth of the Scriptures. From that time on, Soterios could no longer ease his conscience by attending the new calendar parishes. Soterios at first started attending the Serbian Orthodox Church in Birmingham, because they followed the Old Calendar, however, after learning about Ecumenism and the involvement of the Serbian Orthodox Church with the World Council of Churches and that they were in full communion with the new calendar "Churches", he no longer attended the Serbian Church either. Finally, Soterios was received into the Genuine Orthodox Church, because he understood that this was actually the Church which Christ established, away from all defilement and perversion. He simply wanted to follow the Faith of the Holy Apostles, of the Holy Fathers, the Faith which keeps and Holds in tact, all the Holy Doctrines, Scriptures and Canons as well as all the written and unwritten traditions. 
 

Having been advised by His Eminence, Metropolitan of Citium, Epiphanius, of the Genuine Orthodox Church of Cyprus, to consider entering the Holy Diaconate, Soterios understood that perhaps this was the will of God. Therefore, at 51 years of age, on the 26th September/9th October 1976, Soterios was ordained into the diaconate, by Metropolitan of Citium, Epiphanius at St. Spyridon's parish in Aradippou, Cyprus, which was also his village. Fifteen days later, on the 11th October/8th November 1976, he was ordained into the Holy Priesthood, by His Eminence Bishop Epiphanius again, but this time at the Holy Twelve Apostles church in Limassol, Cyprus. Upon returning back to Birmingham, Great Britain, the newly ordained Presbyter, Fr. Soterios and his faithful began having services in an old "Apostolic Church" building, until by the grace of God, the church property bought, which was on the 16th September, 1977 when Fr. Soterios received the deeds. The property perched, was partitioned into four areas, area a) The main big church of Ss. Constantine & Helen, area b) the St. Nectarius chapel, area c) the parish cemetery, and area d) became the First Greek, Cypriot Community Centre in Birmingham, this would later be the main church hall. 

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Fr. Soterios was a man with vision for the future of the Church and was driven by faith, and so, he saw the purchase of the church property clearly as God's Providence. On the 26th October 1979, Fr. Soterios was made Prelatic Deputy for Bishop Epiphanius in Great Britain, which meant that he could sign official documents on behalf of the bishop, as like the bishops representative.

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On Sunday, 27th July, 1980, was when Ss. Constantine & Helen's Church was consecrated by His Eminence, Bishop Epiphanius in an all night vigil. From that time on, Fr. Soterios, served his parish for the rest of his life, and without fail, every single day until he was hospitalised, he would go and light the oil lamps in both Ss. Constantine & Helens church and St. Nectarius's chapel. He was truly devoted to the Church. For a few years, Fr. Soterios would also serve at St. Michael's chapel in Guilford, as well as the church of St. Fanourios in Brussels, Belgium from time to time. 

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On 30th June 2003, he would loose yet another child, this time through cancer, this was his daughter Eleftheria, she was aged 45 years old, she left behind a husband and three children. (Note: * Here it is worthy of mentioning that Fr. Soterios, would live through another early death in the family, a granddaughter of his, the daughter of his daughter Christodouli, who was tragically hit by a car on the 24th November, 1984, in Cyprus, she was only four and a half years old when she reposed in the Lord, her name was Georgia. Years after the passing of Fr. Barnabas (formerly known as Fr. Soterios), another one of his daughters would fall asleep in the Lord, his second daughter, Eugenia, who died from cancer on the 30th June 2019 which was exactly the same date of Eleftheria's death, 16 years later.)

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In May of 2005, Metropolitan of Citium, Epiphanius, who was also the Locum Tenens (Acting Bishop) for the Church here in the British Isles, reposed in the Lord, and Fr. Soterios was of course very saddened, but knew that the Church must go on and progress despite the loss. Due to external influences, however, Fr. Soterios and the parish here in Birmingham, chose to remain without an Acting Bishop until July of 2010, when he and the Parish invited the new Metropolitan of Citium, His Eminence Bishop Parthenios, to visit the parish. The reasoning behind inviting the bishop was to engage in serious talks, with the objective of giving reassurance and confidence to Fr. Soterios and the Parish of Ss. Constantine & Helen to officially come under the omophoron of Bishop Parthenios. On a side note, in May of 2010, the president of the parish, was in Cyprus, and had visited one of Bishop Parthenios's monasteries, in particular, the Holy Monastery of the "Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple" in Germasogeia, Limassol, Cyprus. There the President had met a hierodeacon, whom he believed would be a good candidate for becoming the priest who would help Fr. Soterios, since he was already 85 years of age, because the hierodeacon was fluent in both Greek and English. Upon his return back to the UK, the president informed Fr. Soterios and the Parish about the hierodeacon he had met in one of Bishop Parthenios's Monasteries, and gave them information which gave everyone a lot of hope, and so that is when they invited Bishop Parthenios and his deacon to come to the UK. Having met first with Fr. Soterios and the president of the parish then finally with the parishioners, it was decided that Fr. Soterios and the Parish would officially come under Bishop Parthenios, so by the Sunday after the meeting which was a few days later, Bishop Parthenios and his hierodeacon served the Divine Liturgy for the first time at Ss. Constantine & Helens church. Something Fr. Soterios for many years would pray for, was for the Lord to send him a priest who would be his successor, before he left this life, so that he can die knowing his parish and everything he laboured for would be left in good hands. He would pray to the Holy Mother of God in desperation, to send a priest who would be a monastic, instead of a married priest because his dream would be that one day the Church in Britain would have her own bishop, he often expressed these things, this is what gave him a whole lot of hope and encouragement concerning the Australian born Hierodeacon Sozomenos.  

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After Fr. Soterios and the parish of Ss. Constantine and Helen asked Bishop Parthenios many times, to ordain his hierodeacon so that he could serve for them in the UK, Bishop Parthenios finally agreed. Therefore on 13th/26th December 2010, His Eminence Metropolitan of Citium, Parthenios, ordained Hierodeacon Sozomenos into the Priesthood, at Ss. Constantine and Helen's Parish in Birmingham. Furthermore, just a month earlier on the 8th/21st November 2010, the Bishop had also ordained Deacon Fr. Ioan to serve along side the newly ordained Priestmonk Sozomenos until the bishop's further instruction. 

 

On 14th December 2012, the beloved wife of Fr. Soterios, Presbytera Alexandra, reposed in the Lord, and at this point, Fr. Soterios had weekend quite a bit especially for the first few months after Presbytera's passing.

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After about 8 months from the repose of Presbytera Alexandra, Fr. Soterios informed his Spiritual Father, Bishop Parthenios, that he desired to end his life as a Priestmonk. Meanwhile, the Genuine Orthodox Church of the British Isles was preparing for a very big day later on that year. Priestmonk Sozomenos, had asked a blessing from his bishop and in turn from the Holy Synod, to establish the Feast Day of the All-saints of Britain, so that the British saints will slowly begin to be honoured once again in Britain. Priestmonk Sozomenos organised to have a big Icon made for the Feast, as well as have a service composed in English according to the Byzantine Rite style of music. Approval had been given by the Holy Synod and arrangements had been made for Bishop Parthenios to invite other members of the Holy Synod to Birmingham to officially declare the Feast Day, as well as celebrate the joyous and historical event, which would be very important for the future of the Church in Britain. Meanwhile, Bishop Parthenios, had also decided that the best day to make Fr. Soterios a monk, would be on the very day we would proclaim and celebrate Feast of the All-saints. Therefore, on Sunday, the 19th October/1st November 2013, Fr. Soterios received the Monastic Tonsure, taking the name Barnabas as he was given the Small-Schema of the Angelic Rank. From that time on, Fr. Soterios would be known as Priestmonk Barnabas.

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On Saturday, 18th/31st October 2015, on the Feast Day the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, our beloved Priestmonk, Fr. Barnabas reposed in peace in the Lord, at 90 years of age. St. Luke was also the Patron saint of Aradippou, Fr. Barnabas's village in Cyprus.

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It is definitely worth mentioning a couple of things Fr. Soterios would often say, concerning things he wished to achieve for the Parish, as the visionary he was.  He would often say, "this place (the church property) will become a monastery one day". Another thing he said before he fell asleep in the Lord: "In five years we will have our own bishop here". We now look back and remember these things, and give thanks unto the Lord, because both of these wishes have been fulfilled, and even though he did not get to see these things take place before his blessed repose, his memory will be long lived within the hearts of the clergy and of the faithful, because, if it were not for the sacrifices,  efforts, and labours of Fr. Barnabas, none of the aforementioned accomplishments and blessings would have been ever possible.