James (Iakovos) of Vatopedi (d. 1924)

James (Iakovos) of Vatopedi (d. 1924), an archimandrite, with the secular name Panagiotis Dimopoulos, was born in 1853 in the village of Agia Marina in Locris. He came to Vatopedi in 1869 and in 1871 was tonsured a monk by his virtuous elder, James of Epirus (d. 1885). He was ordained deacon in 1875 and priest in 1885; in 1879 he graduated from the Theological School of Halki. He taught at the monastery's school and was chief secretary of the Holy Community. In 1891 he was raised to the rank of former abbot, and in 1894 to that of archimandrite of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

In the same year he was sent, with the monastery's leave, as representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Patriarchal Metochion of Saint Sergius in Moscow, which he renovated and enlarged. He was known for his priestly dignity, learning and good manners. Under Patriarch Joachim III he was elected Metropolitan of Larissa, but for spiritual reasons he did not accept the election. The monastery keeps his vestments and mitre as a mitred archimandrite in Moscow, and the crosses and pectoral cross given him by the Patriarch. He was a scholar, the author of worthwhile works, spoke Russian excellently and was greatly esteemed by Russian church and political leaders. The simple, faithful Russian people especially honoured him, and he tried to assist them spiritually and materially. He wrote a study on the Greek manuscripts and treasures in Moscow that came from Athos, and in 1880 one on moral freedom.

After the Bolshevik revolution, grieved and oppressed by the godless authorities, and trying to protect the metochion from destruction, he came to live in extreme poverty. His will, written in Moscow in 1913, shows him humble and forgiving. He reposed in the Lord on 20 January 1924. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.