Background
Dositheus was born in Arachova, Greece on May 31, 1641.
Dositheus was born in Arachova, Greece on May 31, 1641.
He convened the Synod of Jerusalem to counter the Calvinist confessions of Cyril Lucaris. Little of his early life is known. He was ordained a deacon in 1652 and elevated to archdeacon of Jerusalem in 1661.
In 1666, he was consecrated archbishop of Caesarea Palestinae (now Ḥorbat Qesari, Israel).
In 1669, he was elected patriarch of Jerusalem. He became very involved in the state of the Orthodox Church in the Balkans, Georgia, and southern Russia, particularly after Patriarch Cyril Lucaris of Constantinople set forth in his Confession of Faith (1629) his agreement in the doctrines of predestination and justification by faith alone.
In correspondence with Peter I of Russia, he objected to Peter"s reforms that subjected the Church to the state, particularly with his abolition of the Patriarchate of Russia. Dositheus failed in his attempt to get Peter to intercede for the Orthodox Church in the peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire in 1702.
Dositheos died in Constantinople on February 8, 1707.
In 1715, his twelve volume History of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem was published.