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An attempted liver transplant in Florida last year was unsuccessful, and the archbishop had grown steadily weaker at his home in recent days.
Elected to lead the church in 1998, he was a colourful figure, defending the church's pre-eminent role in the state.
He was also a strong supporter of Hellenism, the national character and culture of Greece.
The archbishop had been diagnosed with cancer last June after intestinal surgery.
In 2006, he met the Pope at the Vatican as part of efforts to bring the two churches together - the first such talks between Greece's most senior cleric and the leader of the world's Roman Catholics.
Their meeting focused on attempts to end the Great Schism that dates from 1054.
The Greek Orthodox Church is an autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent, branch of the Eastern Orthodox Communion, covering the territory of Greece.
(BBC)
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