Russian patriarch to visit Belgrade in mid-November

Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE -- Russian Patriarch Kirill will in mid-November visit Belgrade and along with Serbian Patriarch Irinej consecrate a monument to Russian Emperor Nicholas Romanov.

(Beta, file)

Tanjug said this was confirmed on Tuesday by the Belgrade Patriarchate of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Kirill's visit was announced last summer, when it was said that he will meet with top Serbian Orthodox Church dignitaries, as well as with state officials.

It will be his second visit to Serbia since his election as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. He attended the celebrations of the 1700th anniversary of the signing of the Milan Edict, held in Niš, southern Serbia, last year.

"The Russian patriarch's visit is a confirmation of the continuity of the strong spiritual and institutional unity of the sisterly Russian and Serbian orthodox Churches. I think the visit will without a doubt also have a political message, because it goes in favor of expansion of the sphere of Russia's influence on Serbia," Nikola Knežević, president of the Novi Sad-based Center for the Study of Religion, Politics and Society, said in a statement to Tanjug.

Kirill will arrive here shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin 's visit last month, "which speaks in favor of very close ties between the authorities and the Church in Russia, an almost symphonic relationship," according to Knežević.

He added that the visit will have "great significance" and will send a message of "political romanticism" considering the monument is dedicated to the last Russian tsar who is considered a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church and a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

"The consecration of the monument is a symbolic act that should once again emphasize the spiritual unity of Russian and Serb peoples, but also unequivocally point to the importance and influence that Russia is gaining in a country that stands divided between East and West, and direct the spiritual vertical and the political horizontal lines along which Serbia should move in the future" - said Knežević.