11. December 2020 - 11:05
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain – Philipians 1:21
These are words of the great apostle Paul written in the epistle to the Philippians. And we are witnesses that the life of Metropolitan Amfilohije is similar to the life of the Apostle Paul, who before his departure lived and suffered with the faithful and taught them in order to prepare them for his departure, always knowing that for the one who lives in Christ and by Christ, departure (death) in fact is gain.
Bishop Joanikije, like Timothy, who was born in spirit by the apostle Paul himself, over the bier of his spiritual father, not only comforts the faithful but also strengthens them in spirit, knowing about the blessing and grace that dwells in the struggling, yet Church Triumphant. The Apostle Paul, in teaching the faithful Philippians, left them a legacy of mutual harmony and brotherly love.
11. December 2020 - 11:10
His Holiness Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilovic) of Serbia was born in the village of Vidova, near town of Cacak, Serbia, on 28 August, 1930. His baptismal name was Miroslav. He finished elementary school in his village, and later on high school in Cacak. Thereupon he enrolled and completed Theological Seminary in Prizren, Kosovo and Metohia, and graduated at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade. Upon graduation, he did his army service for a year and a half. The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church appointed him a professor of the Prizren Theological Seminary, but before assuming this assignment he was tonsured by the late Serbian Patriarch Herman (German) and got the monastic name Irinej, at the Rakovica monastery near Belgrade in October 1959.