Five years have passed since the repose of the blessed Patriarch Irinej of Serbia.
On this occasion, Bishop Tikhon of Moravica celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church of the Holy Glorious Great Martyr and Prince Lazar, located in the crypt of the Holy Temple of Saint Sava in Vračar.
A memorial service (trisagion) was then offered at the tomb of the blessed Patriarch Irinej.
Biography of the blessed Patriarch Irinej of Serbia
On August 27, 1930, the Lord blessed the pious parents Zdravko and Milijana Gavrilović from the village of Vidova near Čačak – and with them the entire Serbian people – with the birth of a son who received the name Miroslav at Holy Baptism.
He completed elementary school in his birthplace and then attended the Gymnasium in Čačak and the Theological School of Prizren. He later graduated from the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade. After completing his military service, he was appointed assistant professor at the Prizren Theological School. Before assuming his duties, in October 1959, at the Rakovica Monastery, he received the monastic tonsure and the name Irinej from the Serbian Patriarch German. On the feast of Saint Paraskeva of the same year, he was ordained hieromonk in the church of Ruzica at Kalemegdan.
While serving as a professor at the Theological School of Prizren, he was sent for postgraduate studies in Athens. In 1969 he was appointed director of the Monastic School at Ostrog Monastery, from where he returned to Prizren to serve as rector of the historic Theological School. From this position, in 1974 he was elected auxiliary bishop to the Serbian Patriarch with the title Bishop of Moravica. In 1975 he was elected Bishop of Niš.
At the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church on January 22, 2010, he was elected Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade–Karlovci, and Patriarch of Serbia.
The blessed Patriarch Irinej of Serbia fell asleep in the Lord on November 20, 2020, at the Military COVID Hospital ‘Karaburma’ in Belgrade.
