On November 22, Patriarch Irinej, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), who died on November 20 due to COVID-19, was buried in the Church of St. Sava in Belgrade.
This is reported by Radio Liberty.
Irinej has been the head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2010. Serbian bishops, as well as Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and member of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik spoke about the life and work of the Patriarch. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk delivered a speech on behalf of Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
He called the late Serbian Patriarch "a great friend of the Russian Orthodox Church" and added that Irinej was several times "in the First-Throne Moscow, in the city of St. Peter, in the center of baptism Kyiv and the capital of Belarus Minsk." He did not specify where Kyiv is located and who was baptized there. Metropolitan Hilarion has noted that the late Patriarch Irinej "has repeatedly fearlessly and directly spoken out in support of the persecuted canon law in Ukraine."
According to observers, at the funeral in Belgrade the representative of the Moscow Patriarch humiliated with such words millions of Ukrainians belonging to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Representatives of other Orthodox Churches did not speak at the funeral.
As RISU has reported, Metropolitan Epifaniy of the OCU sent a telegram to express condolences to the Orthodox Church on the death of Patriarch Irinej.
The Serbian Patriarch fell ill immediately after returning from the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, where he led the funeral ceremony for Metropolitan Amphilochius, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, who also died due to COVID-19.