His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije will on October 14, 2022 (the feast of the of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God) visit Kosovo and Metohija and the Peć Patriarchate, the Stavropegial Lavra of the Serbian Patriarchs, where he will preside over the Holy Liturgy in concelebration with bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
On that occasion, according to the traditional custom there will be the ceremonial enthronement of His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije to the most holy throne of the Archbishops of Peć and Serbian Patriarchs.
For eight centuries, the all-Serbian and universally Orthodox ancient holy place - the Peć Patriarchate monastery - preserves the sacred throne into which the heirs of Saint Sava (the first Serbian Archbishop) are introduced and from which Serbian archbishops and patriarchs steer the ship of Christ's Church within the limits of their canonical jurisdiction. After the establishment of the unity of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1920, the tradition of enthronement in the throne of Peć was renewed as a visible proof of spiritual unity of our most reverend archbishops and patriarchs from the time of obtaining autocephaly in 1219 until today.
Enthronement of the first Patriarch of the established Serbian Patriarchate, His Holiness Dimitrije (Pavlović) to the ancient throne in the Peć Patriarchate was performed on August 24, 1924, and later his successors were also enthroned on the throne of Saint Sava: Patriarch Varnava (Rosić) on July 6, 1930; Patriarch Gavrilo (Dožić) on August 2, 1938; Patriarch German (Đorić) on May 29, 1960; Patriarch Pavle (Stojčević) in July 1994; Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilović) on October 3, 2010.
End of the Communique
Additional information:
Peć Patriarchate Monastery was founded by St. Arsenije the second Serbian Archbishop in 1233—1263 on the location of the metochion of the Žiča Monastery. Since then the monastery has remained the formal and historical center of the Serbian archdiocese, and later, Serbian patriarchate throughout centuries. Beside the first church built under Archbishop Arsenije, the others were constructed during the 14th century. The monastery has played an important role of a spiritual center of the Serbian Church and its people in times of the Ottoman occupation, especially in 16th and 17th centuries, when our people lived scattered in different states, Ottoman empire, Austrian Hungarian empire, Venician republic and semi-independent Principality of Montenegro. After the Balkan wars 1912-1913 which brought the liberation from the Ottomans, and the subsequent First World war 1914-1918, in 1920 the Constantinople Patriarchate confirmed the patriarchal status of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Beside Peć Patriarchate, as a historical and traditional center of our primates, Belgrade became the official administrative center of our Patriarchs who nevertheless retain the title of the Archbishops of Peć too. Since then, all the primates of the Serbian Orthodox Church after the innitial inauguration in Belgrade after their election are also enthroned in the Peć patriarchal monastery, according to the ancient tradition. Peć Patriarchate monastery is a UNESCO world heritage site since 2005. In the monastery can be seen tombs of our holy medieval archbishops and patriarchs. The monastery is also jurisdictionally a Stavropegic Lavra i.e. a monastery under the direct ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Patriarch.
Serbian Orthodox Church is one of several autocephalous canonical Orthodox Churches with 45 Bishops. Most of them are diocesan bishops who take care of dioceses throughout the canonical territory of the SOC as well as in Diaspora with millions of believers speaking Serbian but also other languages now.
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Communique on the enthronement of the Patriarch, on the official site of the Serbian Orthodox Church: