Archbishop Chrysostomos II was elected in 2006 after his predecessor fell and lapsed into a coma. The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus asked Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, to call a special synod to deal with the question of succession, since church canons did not. 

The metropolitan archbishop of Cyprus is not only primate of the island, but also archbishop of Nea Justiniana. Around the year 685, Arab invaders took Cyprus from the Byzantines, forcing the evacuation of its people to Hellespont, a town near Constantinople. Emperor Justinian II renamed Hellespont “Nea Justiniana” and gave the exiled archbishop of Cyprus primacy over the local community.

By 698, most Cypriots returned from exile. One reminder of this episode remains: The official title of the island’s Orthodox metropolitan is “Archbishop of Nea Justiniana and All Cyprus.”