Serbia begins official mourning for Patriarch Pavle

Mon, Nov 16 2009

Serbia began three days of official mourning on November 16 2009 for Pavle, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, whose death was announced by the church the day before.

Pavle, who was 95, became the head of the church in 1990 but since 2007 had not been carrying out his duties because of severe ill-health. Metropolitan of Montenegro and Littoral Amfilohije, who had been standing in for Pavle, will continue to act as head of the church pending the formal election of a successor.

Serbian media reported that long queues formed at Belgrade’s Cathedral Church of St Michael the Archangel to pay tribute to Pavle, who will be buried at the country’s Rakovica Monastery on November 19.

Serbian state officials and representatives of the country’s Roman Catholic Church expressed their condolences. “There are people who bond entire nations and Pavle was such a person,” Serbian president Boris Tadic said.

Pavle was born Gojko Stojčević in Slavonia on September 11 1914 and took orders as a monk in 1946, adopting the name Pavle. He became bishop of Raska-Prizren in 1957 and Patriarch on December 1 1990.

Notable highlights of his career included his supervision of the first official translation into Serbian of the New Testament in 1984, revised in 1990, as well as authorships of theological works and being a driving force in church restorations.

Pavle was adamant in opposing Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, saying after Kosovo’s February 2008 unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia, “”Kosovo is not only a question of territory, it is a question of our spiritual being”.

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