TODAY MARKS 112 YEARS SINCE THE BIRTH OF PATRIARCH PAVLE

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 11 /SRNA/ – Today marks 112 years since the birth of the late Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, one of the most beloved and respected heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church, whom the people called a living saint during his lifetime.

Patriarch Pavle left a profound mark both as a theologian and a writer. During the difficult years of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and NATO's aggression against Serbia, Patriarch Pavle advocated peace, justice, and the preservation of the lives and dignity of all people.

His life is remembered above all for his humility, modesty, prayer and testimony to the faith. Even today, 17 years after his death, his words and example remain strongly present in the memory of the faithful.

Patriarch Pavle, whose secular name was Gojko Stojčević, was born on the great Orthodox feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, on September 11, 1914, in Kućanci, near Donji Miholjac in Slavonia.

He was elected Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church on December 1, 1990, succeeding the seriously ill Patriarch German.

Patriarch Pavle was enthroned on December 2, 1990, at the Cathedral Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Belgrade, where he said that the Gospel would be the only programme guiding his work.

He spent 19 years on the throne of Saint Sava as Patriarch of Serbia. During his tenure, the Serbian Orthodox Church Academy of Arts and Conservation was established, religious education was reintroduced into public schools, and the Faculty of Orthodox Theology was restored to the University.

He visited numerous Orthodox Churches - Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Georgia, as well as Serbian dioceses and parishes in the United States, Canada, Australia, Hungary and Romania. He was the recipient of the highest ecclesiastical and state honours.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Faculty of Theology and St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Academy in New York. He spoke Greek, Russian and German.

He was awarded the Serbian Order of Nemanja, First Class, the Order of the Karađorđe Star, First Class, and the Russian Order of Dignity for "the significance he had during the trials through which the Serb people and the Church passed".

On January 13, 2005, the Government of Serbia appointed Patriarch Pavle honorary president of the Fund for Kosovo and Metohija.

During his visit to Russia in January 2002, Patriarch Pavle received two significant awards from the International Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Christian Nations and the Foundation of St. Andrew the First-Called.

He published two books - Questions and Answers for the Reader Before Ordination and Devič, Monastery of St. Joanikije of Devič. Through the efforts of Patriarch Pavle, an expanded edition of the Srbljak was also published.

Patriarch Pavle’s personal library became part of the collection of the Library of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate and has the status of cultural heritage. It is kept in the quarters of the Monastery of St. Michael the Archangel in Rakovica.

The messages of the late Patriarch Pavle, the best known of which is "Let us be human," are still frequently repeated today.

He completed primary school in Kućanci, where, following the death of both his parents, his father's sister Senka took care of him and his brother Dušan.

He completed lower grammar school in Tuzla, upper grammar school and the six-year Seminary in Sarajevo, and graduated from the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade. There, he also completed the upper grades of the Sixth Belgrade Grammar School as an external student so that he could simultaneously enroll in the Faculty of Medicine, where he completed two years of study.

World War II found him serving his military service. As a refugee, he stayed at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Ovčar and in Banja Koviljača from 1944, working as a religious education teacher at a home for children who had fled BiH.

After contracting tuberculosis, he went from there to Vujan Monastery in the village of Prislonica, between Čačak and Gornji Milanovac, where he recovered and remained until 1946.

He became a monk in 1948 at the Blagoveštenje Monastery in the Ovčar-Kablar Gorge and was given the name Pavle by Abbot Julijan /Knežević/. He was a member of the Rača Monastery in Podrinje and also worked as an assistant teacher at the Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prizren. After completing two years of postgraduate studies in Athens, he became an archimandrite.

In May 1957, he was elected Bishop of Raška and Prizren and spent 33 years in Kosovo and Metohija, until his election as Patriarch of Serbia.

Patriarch Pavle of Serbia died on November 15, 2009, at the age of 95, at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried at the Rakovica Monastery in Belgrade.

More than half a million people attended his funeral, and thousands of Orthodox believers visit Patriarch Pavle’s grave every year.

Among the messages left by Patriarch Pavle that remain remembered by the people are: "Let us beware of inhuman people, but even more, let us beware that we ourselves do not become inhuman," and "Take care even of your enemies and pray for them, for they do not know what they are doing."

"Everything will pass, but the soul, honour and what is good remain forever," is another of Patriarch Pavle's messages.