He was born on the island of Tinos as Photios Peroglou and was elected as Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1883, even though the Sultan refused to accept the choice and was named as Metropolitan of Nazareth. In 1900 he was elected Patriarch of Alexandria. He divided the entire administration of the Patriarchate into seven ecclesiastical Provinces. He re-established the Metropolis of Ptolemais, reno vated from scratch the Holy Monastery of St George in Old Cairo and founded the Patriarchal Printing Press, publishing the two periodicals “Pantainos” and “Ecclesiastikos Pharos”. He fell asleep on 4th September 1925 in Zurich .