His Grace Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia (in the world Timothy Ware) was bornon September 11th 1934 in Bath, Somerset, England. He was educated at Westminster School (to which he had won a scholarship) and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took a Double First in Classics as well as reading Theology. In 1958, at the age of 24, he embraced the Orthodox Christian faith (having been raised Anglican), traveling subsequently throughout Greece, spending a great deal of time at the Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Patmos. He also frequented other major centers of Orthodoxy such as Jerusalem and Mount Athos. In 1966, he was tonsured as a monk, receiving the name Kallistos, and was ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood. In the same year, he became a lecturer at Oxford, teaching Eastern Orthodox Studies, a position which he held for 35 years until his retirement. In 1979, he was appointed to a Fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford. In 1982 he was unanimously elected by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain with the high title of “Bishop of Diokleia”. He was ordained on Sunday 6th June 1982 in Saint Sophia Orthodox Cathedral in London. Despite his elevation, he remained in Oxford and carried on his duties both as the parish priest of the Oxford Orthodox Community and as a lecturer at the University. Since his retirement as a professor in 2001, Bishop Kallistos has continued to publish and to give lectures on Orthodox Christianity, travelling widely. Until recently, he was the chairman of the board of directors of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge. He is the chairman of the group Friends of Orthodoxy on Iona. Bp Kallistos is perhaps best known as the author of the book The Orthodox Church, published when he was a layman in 1963 and subsequently revised several times. More recently, he produced a companion volume, The Orthodox Way. But his most substantial publications have emerged from his translation work. Together with G. E. Palmer and Philip Sherrard), he has undertaken to translate the Philokalia (four volumes of five published to date); and with Mother Mary he produced the Lenten Triodion and Festal Menaion.

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