German, Serbian Patriarch

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Pavle
Orders
Ordination1927
Consecration1951
Personal details
Born
Hranislav Đorić

(1899-08-19)19 August 1899
Jošanička Banja, Kingdom of Serbia
Died27 August 1991(1991-08-27) (aged 92)
Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia
SignatureGerman's signature
Styles of
Serbian Patriarch German
Reference style
His Holiness
Spoken styleYour Holiness
Religious stylePatriarch
Posthumous styleHis Holiness Patriarch German of Blessed Repose

German (

schisms that occurred during his tenure.[2]

The full title of German was: His Holiness, the Archbishop of

Serbian Patriarch German (Serbian
: Његова светост, Архиепископ пећки, Митрополит београдско-карловачки и Патријарх српски, Герман)

Education and early career

Patriarch German was born Hranislav Đorić on August 19, 1899, in the spa town of Jošanička Banja in central Serbia, in a family of teachers, and latter priest. His father, Mihajlo Đorić of Velika Drenova, graduated from Belgrade's prestigious Seminary (Serbian: Београдска богословија) in 1895. Hranislav Đorić received a broad education and was among most educated members of the Serbian clergy, attending primary school in Velika Drenova and Kruševac, seminary in Belgrade and Sremski Karlovci (graduating in 1921), studying law in Paris' Sorbonne and finally graduating from the University of Belgrade's Orthodox Theology Faculty in 1942.

He was ordained a

Studenica
monastery, July 7, 1951, acquiring the name German (Herman). Patriarch Vikentije, together with bishops Valerijan of Šumadija, Nikanor of Bačka and Vasilije of Banja Luka ordained him a bishop, July 15 in Cathedral Church of Belgrade. The new bishop became at the same time the secretary general of the Holy Synod and editor in chief of the Glasnik, the official gazette of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In 1952 he was appointed a bishop of the

bishop of Žiča, at that time, semi-officially, the second office of importance in the church, after the patriarch. In this capacity, he was also an administrator (acting bishop) of Budimlja and Polimlje and Raška and Prizren
eparchies.

Patriarch

Appointment controversy

When Patriarch Vikentije II suddenly died on July 5, 1958, internal strife struck the church leadership and no agreement could be reached on who would succeed him. German was not even appointed as the guardian of the throne (acting patriarch), instead the bishop of Braničevo, Hrizostom Vojinović was appointed to vacate the post. It is believed that German's election was a compromise, but the still popular story is that Aleksandar Ranković, the top Serbian Communist official at that time, and later Josip Broz Tito's deputy, entered the Holy Synod's session, bringing German inside, and saying: "This is your new patriarch!"

German was elected the 43rd Patriarch of Peć on September 14, 1958. However, some sources claim a much higher number, as a result of over a dozen of people who occupied the throne, but were not officially ordained or recognized as such (such as several rebel-patriarchs in the 16th century during the Ottoman occupation) or the Patriarchs of Karlovci in Austria-Hungary which are not counted in the list of official patriarchs (especially not as patriarchs of Peć, instead calling themselves patriarchs of the Serbs).

Schisms

Like most Orthodox churches in the Eastern Bloc, the Serbian Orthodox Church under German was forced to strike a modus vivendi with the ruling League of Communists in order to procure the space it needed to operate. The diaspora priests, led by the vocally anti-communist Bishop Dionisije, claimed that the Belgrade "red priests" had acquiesced too early.[3] After the Holy Synod started a trial against Dionisije for allegations about his personal life, he went into schism with the church in November 1963.[4] Starting in 1977, the group assumed the name "Free Serbian Orthodox Church". It was reconciled with the SOC in 1992, under German's successor Pavle.[5]

The schism of the

SR Macedonia) from the mother church, claiming heritage from the historical Archbishopric of Ohrid, which had been non-existent for 200 years. German and the Serbian Orthodox Church, claiming the separation was forced and uncanonical (in other words, they deemed it a church established by the Communists) ended any canonical communication with the Macedonian Orthodox Church. In turn, German's example was followed by all the other Orthodox Churches. The problem continued after German and the breakup of Yugoslavia, and it became a highly political issue, not only with the Serbian Orthodox Church, but with the Church of Greece and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
. This schism continued until 2022, when the Macedonian church reconciled with the Serbian Patriarchate and was granted full autonomy and subsequently autocephaly by Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia.

Revitalization and consequences

Grave of Patriarch German of Serbia in Belgrade's St. Mark's Church

German set to revitalize the Serbian Orthodox Church, which (like other religious communities in Yugoslavia) received no state support. During his entire tenure, he kept a low profile, while achieving certain goals in this direction. Despite harsh conditions, he managed to form several new dioceses: Western Europe (1969), Australia (1973), Vranje (1975) and Canada (1983).

He oversaw the finishing works on the new seminary complex of buildings in Belgrade (including the campus) in 1958, so today the entire neighborhood surrounding the complex is known as

protégé, Danilo Dajković in 1961[citation needed]. He also sent many priests to SR Montenegro as clerical activities had almost completely ceased there after the war[citation needed
].

In 1984, German visited the site of the Jasenovac concentration camp, saying a now famous line: "To forgive, we must ...to forget, we must not" (Опростити морамо, заборавити не смемо).[6]

Many consider German's greatest achievement to be his successful campaign for the resumption of the construction of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, which was stopped in 1941. In 26 years from his appointment, he urged the Communist government 88 times until they finally authorized the construction to continue in 1984. Being a massive project, it took a long time and the church was completed in 2021.

Patriarch German was a pragmatic religious leader in times that were very oppressive for religion. After the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980, he slowly pushed church issues as Yugoslav society changed and nationalism grew among the various peoples, and in the end he was universally popular among the Serbs and had become a part of the Serbian social elite.

In 1989, patriarch German broke his hip, which led to a series of surgeries and repeated injuries, so the already old patriarch was unable to perform his duties. As a result of this, the Holy Synod declared him incapacitated on November 30, 1990, and appointed the metropolitan bishop of Zagreb and Ljubljana Jovan Pavlović as the guardian of the throne and elected the new patriarch, Pavle, on December 1, 1990. Patriarch German died in the VMA hospital in Belgrade on August 27, 1991, aged 92, and was buried in Belgrade's St. Mark's Church.

His tenure of 32 years is one of the longest in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

He was awarded the

Order of Saint Sava,[7] Order of the Yugoslav flag, Legion of Honour, Order of George I, National Order of the Cedar and a number of other decorations and awards.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Serbian Orthodox Church, history Archived 2009-04-18 at the Wayback Machine at spc.rs
  2. ^ Вуковић 1996, pp. 133.
  3. ISBN 978-0-8014-4158-5
    .
  4. ^ Spasović, Stanimir; Miletić, Srboljub. "ИСТОРИЈА СРПСКЕ ПРАВОСЛАВНЕ ЦРКВЕ У АУСТРАЛИЈИ, НОВОМ ЗЕЛАНДУ И ЈУЖНОЈ АФРИЦИ — НАСТАНАК РАСКОЛА НА СЕВЕРНОАМЕРИЧКОМ КОНТИНЕНТУ". svetosavlje.org (in Serbian). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  5. ^ Puzović, Predrag (1996). "Епархије Српске православне цркве у расејању" (PDF). Богословље: Часопис Православног богословског факултета у Београду (in Serbian). 40 (1–2): 87–96.
  6. ^ Administrator. "БОРБА ЗА ВЕРУ - Православни став према неправославној фрази "опростити морамо, заборавити не смемо"". borbazaveru.info.
  7. ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 97.
  8. ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. pp. 324–329.

Bibliography

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External links
Eastern Orthodox Church titles
Preceded by
Serbian Patriarch
Metropolitan Bishop of Belgrade and Karlovci

1958–1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Bishop of Žiča
1956–1958 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Bishop of Buda
1952–1956 		Succeeded by
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