Emmanouil Varvounis

Emmanouil Varvounis was born in 1966 on Samos, Greece, where he completed his primary and secondary education.  He was a student of the Section for History and Archaeology of the Philosophical School of the University of Athens (1983 – 1988) and of the University of Athens Theological School.  He specialized in folklore and in 1991 was awarded a doctorate in folklore by the Department of Primary Education of the University of Athens.  During the period 1996 – 1997, he did post-doctoral research at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain – la – Neuve) in Belgium.  Since 1992 he has taught folklore in the Department of History and Ethnology of the Democritus University of Thrace, where he is today a Professor and Department Chairman. 
He is a member of many learned societies in Greece and abroad, such as the Hellenic Folklore Society, in Athens, of which he is also a member of the Administrative Committee, the British Folklore Society, of London, and the American Folklore Society, of Washington.  He is the author of many works, some independent studies and some published in collective volumes.  His works have been translated and published in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Serbian, Turkish, Russian, Georgian, Arabic, Armenian, Latin and Bulgarian.  In March, 2005, His Beatitude the Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios honoured him with the rank of ‘Master Protector of Letters of the Great Holy Church of Christ’.  In 2007, Priest and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa Theodoros II honoured him with the rank of ‘Master Keeper of the Archives’ of the Patriarchal Throne of Alexandria.  In February 2011, His Beatitude the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III proclaimed him ‘Crusader of the All-Holy Tomb’.  In December 2011, he was awarded a prize by the Academy of Athens, in January of 2011 he was awarded the Gold Medal for the Arts and Sciences and in 2012 the Great Gold Cross of the International Albert Schweitzer Organization.  In 2012 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by St. Stephen Harding University, North Carolina.  He is Corresponding Member of the Accadeia Costantina (Rome, 2013), the Accademia Bonifaciana (Milan, 2014), Honorary Member of the Norman Academy (France, 2014), of the REAL Academia de Buenas Letras (Barcelona, 2015), of and a Regular Member of the International Academy of Social Sciences (Florida, 2015). He is an Accedemico d’Onore of the Real Academia Sancti Ambrosii Martyris of Portugal (2016).  He is also an Honorary Doctor of Letters (LL. Doctorate, Doctor of Letters) of the Theological College and Seminary, St. Stephen Harding University (2014) and Honorary Doctor of Theology (DD, Doctor of Divinity) of the St. Seraphim School of Orthodox Theology (2015).  In 2015, he was awarded the ‘Great Prize’ by the Institute of Pedagogical Studies and Applications for his academic work and for his contribution to the international spread and study of Greek culture.  He was also awarded the 15th International Giuseppe Sciacca Prize in 2017 and in the same year made an Honorary Professor of the Department of Classical and Modern Greek Philology (Departamentul  de Filologie Clasica şi Neogreacă) of the University of Bucharest.  He has been awarded many state and Church decorations for his educational and social work.  He is married and the father of two sons.