Patriarch Pavle, The Man and the Serb

The death of the Serbian Patriarch has united people across Serbia for a moment because there is no controversy about his life – everyone agrees that a great man has died.

Patriarch Pavle spent nineteen years at the helm of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In that period, the church, state and people faced huge challenges but this man of the cloth managed to come out of those difficult times totally unstained.

In the days following his death, people have focused on the morality of the man, ignoring the burden of numerous controversies that the institution he was heading now labours under.

His election as Patriarch came when the Serbian Church was emerging from the Communist period when its activity and influence were restricted and surprised many as, at the time, he was not a prominent member of the Orthodox Church.

The state’s move from Communism to a multi-party system and the rise of Serb nationalism a central tenant of Slobodan Milosevic’s policy gave the Serbian Orthodox Church new room to reclaiming its influence.

Set in this context, Pavle, was a man with an untainted biography, devoted to the work of the church. As Patriarch, he would travel to work on public transport shunning the luxury trappings and expensive cars that formerly came with the office.

“If they drive around in such expensive cars having made a pledge to modesty,” Pavle is reported to have said, “what would have they done had they not made the pledge.”
 
He was criticised in Liberal circles for not being more resolute in holding back the Church from interference in state affairs, although in the church system he was just the first among equals, and many decisions were made passed by the bishops, without his approval.

A pious man, he was nevertheless always willing to talk to anyone without feeling the need to impose his religious views.

His message has been summed up in a sentence: it is better to live for just one day as men, than a whole lifetime as a monster.

Many will remember him for a statement he made in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the war: “Budimo ljudi iako smo Srbi”.

Loosely, this translates in to English as “It’s more important to be a man than a Serb.”