Born Emmanouil Skopelitis in April 1939, Irenaios was elected primate of the Church of Jerusalem on August 13, 2001 in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He was enthroned on September 15, 2001, as the 140th Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine, Syria, beyond the Jordan River, Cana of Galilee and Holy Zion in the presence of senior church and secular dignitaries, including Archbishop Christodoulos of the Church of Greece and Metropolitan Nicholas of the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.