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Thousands of Serbian believers and priests, some without masks, flocked to St. Sava’s Cathedral in Belgrade on Saturday to pay their last respects to Patriarch Irenaeus of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who died at the age of 90 from infection with the new coronavirus. , cited by Agerpres.
The patriarch tested positive for COVID-19 on November 4, after attending the funeral of Metropolitan Amfilohie, the highest prelate of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, who also died of COVID-19 three days earlier. Irineu’s health deteriorated on Thursday morning, when he was intubated, and his death occurred on Friday.
Ignoring the risk of catching the new coronavirus when touching surfaces, some of those who went on Saturday to the Cathedral of Saint Sava – where the coffin is deposited until the funeral on Sunday – have remained faithful to the tradition of kissing the coffin with the body of the dead patriarch. glass. However, most followed the rules, wearing a mask in church and solemnly passing the coffin.
Like many other European countries, Serbia faces a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, with more than 104,000 infections as of Friday, including 1,110 deaths.
Epidemiologist: “This meeting is unacceptable … But it is something that no one can forbid”
Serbian epidemiologist Predrag Kon, a member of the national committee against the pandemic, warned that the funeral of Patriarch Irenaeus was “a great risk.” “This meeting is unacceptable … But it is something that no one can forbid,” he said.
Irenaeus became the 45th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2010. He pastors around 12 million believers, primarily from Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia, and has dioceses in the United States, Australia, and Western Europe.
Irenaeus strongly opposed the independence of Kosovo, a former Serbian province inhabited mainly by Albanians, considered the medieval cradle of Serbian Orthodox Christianity and home to some of the most important monasteries in the Church.
The patriarch said that Serbia should join the European Union “if the EU respects Serbian identity, culture and religion.”
Publisher: Liviu Cojan
