Head of Serbian Orthodox church dies of Covid-19

Patriarch Irinej, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, has died after testing positive for the coronavirus at the age of 90. He contracted the virus in November after attending the funeral of the head of Bishop Amfilohije, who also died due to COVID-19 infection.

Belgrade:The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, has died after testing positive for the coronavirus, Serbian state media said Friday. He was 90.

"It was an honour to have known you," Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Instagram with a black and white photo of the patriarch.

The patriarch was hospitalised with the virus early in November, soon after attending the funeral of the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, Bishop Amfilohije, who also died from complications caused by the COVID-19 infection.

Thousands of mourners, most of them with no masks or keeping distance, gathered at the funeral in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, on Nov. 1 in violation of coronavirus-fighting measures proclaimed by the small Adriatic state's authorities.

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Since Amfilohije's death, and the hospitalization of the Patriarch, Serbian priests have mostly shifted their stands from downplaying the global pandemic to appeals to the believers to take the deadly virus seriously.

Irinej took over the influential church's helm in January 2010 after the death of his predecessor, Patriarch Pavle, who was a highly popular and respected church leader in the Balkan country.

At the time, Irinej was seen as a relatively moderate and a compromise choice among the factions within the church.

But throughout his church reign, he has maintained hardline nationalist stance the church developed during the ethnic wars of the 1990s' in the Balkans, declaring the Serbs historic victims of injustice and anti-Serb policies of rival Balkan nations and the international community.

He has often criticised Western policies toward Serbia over its breakaway Kosovo province, which unilaterally declared independence in 2008, and kept close relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and Serbia's populist President Vucic.

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Irinej was among the rare Serbian church dignitaries who openly called for improved ties with the Roman Catholic Church.

He said the two churches should overcome historic differences.

AP