On August 27, 2026, at the Holy Church of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia officiated a memorial service for the late Patriarch of Serbia, Germanos (Đorđe Đorić), marking thirty-five years since his blessed repose.
On this occasion, the Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church said in his homily:
“We have gathered before the grave of a great man. We have gathered to pray to God for the repose of the soul of the late Patriarch Germanos, and for the thirty-fifth time since his repose, his Church, and indeed the Church of Christ, prays for the repose of his soul, that the Lord may forgive him every sin, voluntary and involuntary, and grant him eternal life.
No one is called from non-being into being who is not an image of God. No one comes into this world without their own cross. There are, however, many who disconnect and separate their cross from the one saving Cross, the Cross of Christ.
There are, however, thank God, also those who take up their cross and follow Christ. In this way, their own cross becomes a part of the Precious Cross of Christ, but at the same time also a participation in Christ’s Crucifixion and, even more importantly, in His victory over Satan, death, and sin.
One of those who, we are certain and know through our faith, made his own cross the Cross of Christ, and the Cross of Christ his own cross, was precisely the great Patriarch among the Patriarchs of our Local Church, the late Patriarch Germanos.
One does not need deep knowledge of history to know that almost none, not only among the Primates of our Church, but also among the Bishops, and especially among the Primates, was called to bear such a truly heavy cross of the Church in his own time.
Patriarch Germanos lived in an age that would be an understatement to call troubled and difficult. They were times of darkness, times of an uncontrolled and unbridled demonic hostility against the Church, a hatred that knew no restraint, no limit.
Whatever the demonic mind could devise, this hatred, manifested through human faces, was carried out, and there was an impression that the Church of Christ had been wiped from the face of the earth.
Patriarch Germanos, as Primate of the Church, was not alone, because he did not rely on himself. He did not believe himself clever, wise, or capable enough to defeat this demonic power by himself and his own strength, with whatever he himself possessed. Above all, he was a humble and humble-minded man.
As time passes, this becomes ever clearer, and this is often the case with many people. He placed all his hope in the Lord and knew that the weaker he himself was, the more powerless he appeared, and the weaker and more powerless the Church appeared, the greater was Her strength, because in this way the grace of God found room to accomplish the work of God.
And just as the phoenix is reborn from its ashes, just as the seed sown in the earth begins gradually to renew itself only once it has died, giving new life and new fruit, offering strength and momentum, so it happened also with the Church, of which Patriarch Germanos was Primate in his time.
With wisdom, humility, philanthropy, and brotherly love, he led the Church to such an extent that this was not always perceived, and many did not recognize it. At the same time, however, he was exposed not only to criticism but to the harshest condemnations, mainly, as is self-evident, from external factors, but unfortunately often also from within, from those for whom he shed tears in his prayers and for whose sake he was ready to endure and suffer, at certain moments even physical abuse.
He endured the criticism and condemnations because he turned his gaze exclusively toward the face of God, and he knew that the ship of the Church, whose helm he had taken, had to be made a ship of Christ and steered to the calm and safe harbor of salvation, guided toward eternity.
For this reason he made a special effort for the restoration of holy churches and the development of ecclesiastical education. He renovated and strengthened theological schools and was ready to endure blows and criticism even from those who worked within them, leaving as much room as possible and helping, to the extent of his ability, so that they might develop theologically.
He knew, then, that the education under the responsibility and protection of the Church must be ecclesiastical, must be Orthodox; it must be, at the same time, prayer, life, and word.
He knew that without prayer, without ascesis, without repentance, without the desire to be transformed and to become better, to progress in virtue, no matter how many books we have read, no matter how many languages we speak, no matter how well we know every word written by every Holy Father and every contemporary theologian, there is no theology.
He knew that when you pray, you are truly a theologian, and that you are truly a theologian when you pray.
At the base, however, at the foundation of all this, and this he knew above all from his own body and his own life, must lie humility and readiness for patience and endurance, because he listened to the word of God, the word of Christ.
This mattered to him. He listened to the word of God the Father, who says: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” He knew, then, that we must do the will of Christ, because the will of Christ is the will of God the Father and the will of the Holy Spirit, the will of the One and Triune God.
He was, then, truly ready to take up the Cross of Christ. He was ready to draw comfort and strength from the Holy Chalice, from the Lord Jesus Christ, and not from men.
There are still living Bishops from his time. He knew that all must be brothers and must cultivate trust and love among themselves, must respect the order of the Church, and that only by carrying out the work of love with decorum can they preserve the unity of the Church, whatever attacks they may face.
And the attacks were fierce; may they never be repeated.
He knew that not even the gates of Hades can prevail against the Church, and for this reason he took particular care for ecclesiastical education.
Perhaps the most important element is precisely the fact that he was a man of unquenchable hope and faith. We see this even today, when we come before the Church of Saint Sava.
For decades, the walls of the Church of Saint Sava, covered by trees and weeds, testified, on the one hand, to the spiritual desolation of the land in which we lived, the desolation of the spiritual field of the Serbian people. On the other hand, however, they testified to the longing and the need for the building of the Church to continue, as a gathering point for the entire Orthodox Serbian people, as a repayment of love, labor, and prayer to Saint Sava, the pioneer and founder of the Serbian Orthodox tradition of Saint Sava.
For this reason, not just once, but in times when no one dared even to mention that they were a Christian or a priest, when everything relating to Christ and the Church had to be hidden and done in secret, the great Patriarch Germanos turned to the atheists of that time, enemies of God and opponents of the faith, who held in their hands both the knife and the bread. He turned to the authorities, asking that the construction of the Church continue.
And although this seemed at first paradoxical, since there was scarcely even a morsel of bread to be found, precisely because he had hope and faith, precisely because he knew that God works miracles where there is faith and hope, he made this appeal not once, but eighty-eight times.
And eighty-eight times he received a negative answer.
Then, when the fullness of time came, in 1984, God finally heard the prayers and the struggle of Patriarch Germanos, and permission was granted for the reconstruction of the Church. In 1985, the consecration took place, and the act was laid in the foundations of the Church that marked the continuation of its construction.
And so today, standing in the Church of Saint Sava and here, in the Church of Saint Mark, we owe, after God, first of all, gratitude also to Patriarch Germanos, because we have this beauty and this sacred treasure, which is nothing other than the expression and manifestation of our love for Christ and for His Church.
For this reason we owe gratitude to Patriarch Germanos, but also prayers for him, for the repose of his soul.
May God forgive his soul and grant him the Kingdom of Heaven.
May his memory be eternal!
