Dr. Kristina Mantasasvili was born in the country of Georgia into a multinational family, and at a very young age, her family relocated to Thessaloniki, Greece. While she was not raised in a religious household, from early childhood she experienced a deep calling to faith and to the Orthodox Church — a calling that has guided her life ever since. This spiritual journey inspired both her academic pursuits and her missionary interest, culminating in a PhD in Orthodox Theology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with a dissertation titled “Anthropological Models: From Post-Palamite Philokalia to the Ecumenical Dialogue (WCC).”

For nearly a decade, Kristina represented the Ecumenical Patriarchate as the youth delegate to the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches, contributing to theological dialogue and inter-Christian understanding.

Today, she serves in Argentina under the Holy Metropolis of Buenos Aires and South America, where she leads a project supported through a grant from the Mission Center to develop an Orthodox catechetical curriculum for children, youth, and young families. Her personal experience of migration and adaptation has given her a special empathy for people navigating cultural transitions and discovering Orthodoxy for the first time. She feels especially called to accompany new Orthodox communities in South America, where the Church is missionary in character and continues to welcome many new faithful.

Outside of ministry, Kristina enjoys traveling, poetry, music, and literature. She enjoys learning new languages — she speaks Greek, Russian, English, Italian, Turkish, Georgian, and French, and is learning Spanish — which reflects her love for engaging with different cultures and people.