Dimitrios was born James George Couchell in Greenville, South Carolina, on February 17, 1938. He began his primary education in Spartanburg, South Carolina, then continued most of his primary and secondary education in Schenectady, New York. He completed high school in Spartanburg, and after one year at Northwestern University, he transferred to the Holy Cross School of Theology, graduating in 1963 with a BA in Theology. Following a year of postgraduate study at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut, he worked at the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America for the next 17 years in a variety of capacities.