Father was baptized Dean Mamaies and raised in the Chicago area by his parents Spiro and Mary Mamaies. He attended Holy Cross High School in River Grove and then Loyola University Chicago. It was in his junior year that Father felt the divine inspiration to study for, and then enter the priesthood. Dean Mamaies entered Hellenic College in Brookline MA, graduating with a degree in Religious Studies. He proceeded to Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and completed the Master of Divinity program.
Metropolitan Iakovos of Chicago ordained Dean Mamaies a deacon monk on September 14, 1986 at Holy Cross in Justice, IL. It was at that time that he took the name Stavroforos or “Cross Bearer”. On October 19th of that same year he was ordained to the priesthood by Metropolitan Iakovos at the Assumption Church of Chicago where he served as an assistant priest to Fr. George Massouras through the summer of 1990.
Father’s first parish assignment brought him to our beloved Metropolis of Atlanta. Fr. Nicholas Triantafilou, the then locum tenens, assigned Fr. Stavroforos to Saint George Church in Hollywood Florida.
With the arrival of Bishop Philip of Blessed Memory in 1992, Fr. Stavroforos left Hollywood and came to be with the people of Durham North Carolina. His church was located at 1316 Watts Street and was known to many of us - it was the then location of Saint Barbara Church.
When the St. Barbara Church Women’s Club became the Philoptochos Society of today, Bishop Alexios was thrilled by this change. He saw this as a major miracle and as an expression of His gratitude he assigned Fr. Stavroforos to the inhabitants of Miami. Upon his arrival in July of 1997, Father Stavroforos was made Dean of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia. In 1999 when Bishop Alexios was elevated to Metropolitan he elevated two priests to the rank of Archimandrite; Fr. Constantine Mersinas and other Fr. Stavroforos Mamaies.
After fifteen years of devoted ministry in Miami, during a conversation with Metropolitan Alexios, the subject of change and of Saint Barbara was raised. Saint Barbara was a parish with which Fr. Stavroforos was familiar, a parish he had known as home and a parish that he never stopped loving. On July 1st of 2012 Fr. Stavroforos returned to Saint Barbara and her people.
Father is an avid movie and music lover. His particular passion is for Broadway shows and their tunes.
