Metropolis of Rhodes Metropolis of Rhodes The Metropolis of Rhodes () is the Greek Orthodox metropolitan see covering the island of Rhodes in the Dodecanese island group in Greece. It belongs to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The foundation of the Christian community of Rhodes is traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, as the island is mentioned (Acts 21) during the latter's third missionary journey. Paul's companion Silas is also held to have preached and performed miracles on the island. The exact date of the establishment of an episcopal see in Rhodes is unknown, although tradition mentions Prochorus as
Dodecanese civilian governor, Count , as "Viceroy of the Dodecanese". As the name was associated with Greek irredentism, from 1924 Mussolini's Fascist regime tried to abolish its use by referring to them as the "Italian Islands of the Aegean", but this name never acquired any wider currency outside Italian administrative usage. The islands joined Greece in 1947 following as the "Governorate-General of the Dodecanese" (Γενική Διοίκησις Δωδεκανήσου), since 1955 the "Dodecanese Prefecture" (Νομός Δωδεκανήσου). The Dodecanese have been inhabited since prehistoric times. In the Neopalatial period on Crete, the islands were heavily Minoanized (contact beginning in the second millennium BC). Following