SILENCE IN THE HOUSE BIRTH OF PATRIARCH IRINEJ: It was easier to breathe and walk with him, the wind was behind us all (PHOTO / VIDEO)

I can not tell you nothing. I don’t have the strength, I can’t … – Milijanka told us briefly.

Even the nephew of Patriarch Slobodan (65) did not hide his tears, feeling sorry for his uncle, when, as he says, he loved and respected.

– It was the wind on our backs. We are used to living with him. It was easier to breathe and walk with him, Slobodan told us. – We were lucky enough to live with him, because I realized that he was not an ordinary man … Later, perhaps, we realized how great he was, how spiritualist he was … Whenever he did something to us We asked him how to thank him, and he always replied: “You don’t owe me anything, just pray to God.” I last heard from him on the phone on Wednesday. He told me that now it was okay, now it was wrong. He spoke softly. I asked him if he could get up, eat, and he answered affirmatively … His secretary then said that he could walk and eat, but that he should not get out of bed … We were hoping for the best, that our experts and the Russians will help him …

Photo: V. Ilić

Slobodan also told us that the patriarch had a great desire: to build a church in his hometown. Much was done in that way, a church and a boarding house arose on his birthplace.

– I am sorry that I did not live up to your desire to consecrate the church that we built together in Vidova. He wanted the church and boarding house to be consecrated next year, on his birthday, August 28, at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but sadly, he will not wait for it to be consecrated. The last time he was in mid-August was in Vidova, he followed every stone built in the new shrine, and he was very happy about that … Our people have lost a lot today, our state has lost … – Slobodan told us.

Just a few hundred meters from the village of Kovacevic is the birthplace of Patriarch Irinej. No one has lived in it for a long time, occasionally the grandchildren of the patriarch’s brother, Vukoman, live in it. Yesterday, Desanka’s daughter-in-law was standing in front of her.

– I lost my Bat … The poor guy is leaving … I can’t imagine he’s gone. I was hoping that he would recover, and that those Russian doctors would also help … But what are you going to do … I wanted to go visit him, I agreed with my grandson Stefan who lives in Germany … He will come, but at the funeral of my Bato – the inconsolable Desanka told us through tears, who has called Patriarch Bato since she married Vukoman.

– I’ve called him Bato all my life. He remained the same after he became a monk, but also when he became a patriarch. His sister resented me for that, she told me that it was no longer Bato, but His Holiness. So I asked him if he was upset and he said I could call him whatever I wanted. He was the best man I ever knew and who walked this country.

– When I married Vukoman, it was in 1956, Bato was in Belgrade, he worked in a commercial company. There he also studied theology. From time to time he came to Vidovo. He was good to me like a loaf of bread, he helped me with the children, it was not difficult for him to do anything, change them, feed them … I loved him very much. He stayed to help me for the rest of his life. He kept wood for the winter, called me often to ask how I was doing. My Bato … – Desa told us about her memories, who with Vukoman gave birth to two children, Predrag and Zoran, who, sadly, passed away four years ago.

He also remembers when the 45th Supreme Leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church became a monk. Says it was 1959.

– It was difficult for me when he became a monk. I remember being dressed in black after my own brother at the time. That path of yours fell more on me than the death of my brother. I cried a lot … But what are you going to do … That’s how it was written for him … Well, then he became patriarch. My Bato … – said Desa.

Photo: V. Ilić

– Not far from our house, there lived nuns, with them the abbess of the Jovanje monastery, who also attracted him to the church. He often stayed with them and was kind to them. He went as a student to the monasteries of the Ovčar-Kablar gorge, especially the Transfiguration with Abbot Jestatije, whose persuasion he enrolled in the Prizren seminary. I know they lived a long time, the mother-in-law Milijana used to say that it happened that the children did not have anything to eat. She said they were hungrier than full.