The Bishop of Kruševac, David (67), who served at the funeral and liturgy at the funeral of Patriarch Irinej in the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade on Sunday, was infected with the coronavirus and hospitalized in the Clinical Hospital “Dragiša Mišović” .
As people from Bishop David’s closest circle told Kurir, he felt the first symptom during the liturgy: he started coughing.
Sunday cough
– The bishop was fine on Sunday morning and so he celebrated, according to plan, a service and a liturgy at the funeral of Patriarch Irinej. However, during the service itself, he began to cough and, as that is one of the first symptoms of the coronavirus, he was tested immediately after the funeral and the test showed that he was positive for coronavirus. As a precautionary measure, he was immediately placed for treatment at KBC “Dragisa Misovic”. There are no more serious symptoms, there is no pneumonia … – said our interlocutor.
In the bishop’s temple at the patriarch’s funeralphoto: Nemanja Nikolić
This was confirmed to us by one of his friends, who spoke by phone with the bishop yesterday during the day.
– I thought it was nice when we talked. Sam says he only coughs a little and otherwise feels fine. He also told me that he was very well cared for at the hospital, and we all believe that he will get over the crown without any problem, a friend of Bishop David told us.
He adds that the bishop, like all conscientious people, hopes not to infect anyone personally, especially considering that at Patriarch Irinej’s funeral he was surrounded by colleagues, but also by the world who came to fire the patriarch for the last time.
The others will also be tested
Although during the funeral of Patriarch Irinej, Bishop David was in contact with numerous bishops, his closest friends at all times were Joakim of Macedonia, Hilarion of Timok and Herzegovina, Dimitrije, who was with him … All of them now, most likely, Test.
By the way, the Bishop of Kruševac, David, was crowned in March this year, and then he was successfully cured at the Zemun Hospital. Even then he had no serious symptoms, but because of his age, as a precaution, he was hospitalized.
JOVAN JANJIĆ
A great blow to the Church
photo: screenshot
Jovan Janjic, a professor who deals with ecclesiastical issues, believes that Bishop David did not contract the virus in the temple at Patriarch Irinej’s funeral, because the incubation lasts five to 15 days.
– The Serbian Church once again makes the greatest sacrifices. Only in this plague did it lose its supreme leader, the patriarch Irinej, as well as the head of Montenegro, the metropolitan Amfilohije, and earlier the bishop of Valjevo, Milutin. No other church suffers such a loss. This suffering of the Serbian church shows how much it shares the destiny of the people and that the bishops are always with the people, even in times of pandemic.
