His Eminence Ignatios Archbishop of Central Africa (known in the world as George Madenlides), was born in 1930 is Edessa, Macedonia, where he completed his schooling. In 1952 he received his degree from the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens. He served as a Midshipman in the Hellenic Navy. He journeyed through 32 Archdiocesan area preaching the word of God. In 1968 he was ordained Deacon and Priest in 1969 (Archimandrite). For 40 years he served as a Preacher (firstly as a layman and member of the Brotherhood of Theologians “O SOTIR”, and then, from 1969, as a member of the clergy) in the Holy Archdiocese of Larisa until 1998. From 1981, he spent 3-5 months of every years working as an assistant to Archimandrite Hariton Pnevmatikakis the missionary, in Kananga, Congo (formerly Zaire). In 1997 he was appointed manager of this subdivision of Mission under the late Archbishop Timotheos of Central Africa, due to the illness of Elder Fr Hariton. On 14th March 2003, he was elected as Archbishop of Central Africa by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. On 16th March 2003 he was consecrated Bishop and on 6th April 2003 he was enthroned in the Archdiocese of Central Africa by His Beatitude Petros VII, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa.