Patrijarh Pavle | Origin of Street Names

Patriarch Pavle of Serbia (1914-2009) was the supreme leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1990 to 2009. In a century full of trials for the Serbian people, he embodied and remained a symbol of Christian teachings, grounded in deep personal faith, humility, philanthropy, and asceticism.

He was born as Gojko Stojčević in the Slavonian village of Kućanci, at that time still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Having lost both parents at a young age, Gojko and his younger brother Dušan were raised by their aunt. Being small in stature and delicate in health, Gojko was not particularly suited for heavy farm work and was directed towards education.

After completing the first four grades of primary school in his hometown, he spent the summer in the Slavonian monastery of Orahovica, where he is believed to have experienced his first serious encounter with Orthodoxy and religion in general. His educational path took him from Tuzla, through Sarajevo, to Belgrade, where he studied simultaneously at the Medical and Theological faculties for a while, eventually choosing the latter as his definitive life calling.

World War II found him in Belgrade, but in 1942, he withdrew to the Ovčar-Kablar Monastery of the Holy Trinity, where he spent the majority of the war. In the Ustaše terror against Serbs in Croatia, he also lost his own brother Dušan.

Several years after the war, he became a monk at the Blagoveštenje Monastery and took the new spiritual name Pavle. The experiential and monastic journey of the future patriarch led him from Blagoveštenje, through the Rača Monastery, to the Prizren Seminary, where in 1957, as an archimandrite, he obtained the title of Bishop of Raška and Prizren.

Serving for 33 years as the Bishop of Raška and Prizren, he witnessed numerous sufferings of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija and was himself attacked on several occasions.

Due to the severe and prolonged illness of Patriarch German, who decided to step down from the "Pech throne," Bishop Pavle unexpectedly found himself in the inner circle for the election of the supreme leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and he assumed that position in December 1990.

Over the next 19 years, during a period known for its deep moral and economic crisis, Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, and Serbian Patriarch Pavle would lead the oldest Serbian institution and constantly remind the faithful through his personal example of true Christian and human values.

With his profound humility, sharing the fate of the people, Patriarch Pavle could often be seen in Belgrade's trolleybuses in the 1990s, just like an ordinary passenger.

Because of this, as well as his constant messages of peace and love in difficult times, Patriarch Pavle will be remembered as one of the most respected and beloved church dignitaries and a "living saint" of his time.

After a long illness and immobility, Patriarch Pavle passed away at the end of 2009 and was buried according to his own wishes in the courtyard of Rakovica Monastery. Over half a million people attended the funeral procession and service to bid farewell to this gentle man.

In honor of the late patriarch, numerous streets and boulevards in cities across Serbia bear his name today.