Metropolitan Porfirije of Zagreb and Ljubljana elected the 46th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Newly-elected Patriarch Dr. Porfirije (Peric) of Zagreb-Ljubljana was born on 22 July 1961 in Becej, northern Serbia, and was baptized as Prvoslav. He was ordained a monk according to the rite of small schime by his spiritual father, then hieromonk Dr. Irinej (Bulovic), at Decani Monastery in 1985.

He graduated from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade in 1986, when the then Bishop of Raska-Prizren Diocese, future Serbian Patriarch Pavle of blessed memory, ordained him a hierodeacon at the monastery of Holy Trinity in Musutiste, Kosovo and Mectochia.

He attended postgraduate studies in Athens from 1986 until 1990. That year, he joined the monastery of Holy Archangels in Kovilj, near Novi Sad, where he was ordained as hieromonk and became its abbot.

 Since then abbot Porfirije has particularly dealt with drug-addicted patients. For this purpose he formed (in 2005) a therapeutic community called “The Land of the Living”, which is recognized as the most successful project for therapy  of drug-addiction; under the leadership of Bishop Porfirije, it has more than hundred residents in camps throughout Serbia at the time being.

On 14 May 1999 he was elected as Bishop of Jegar, Vicar of the Bishop of Backa.

He defended his PhD thesis Possibility of knowability of God in St. Paul’s understanding according to the interpretation of Saint John Chrysostom at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Athens in 2004.

He became a lecturer at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology - Department of Pastoral Psychology - succeeding famous psychiatrist, academician Dr. Vladeta Jerotic.
The Holy Assembly of Bishops entrusted him to establish military chaplaincy in the Serbian Armed Forces in 2010.

His expert theological works Bishop Porfirije published in magazines both in Serbia and abroad. He participated in quite  a number of scientific conferences and symposia throughout the world.

He speaks Greek, English, German and Russian.

He was enthroned on the throne of the Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana on July 13, 2014 in the Cathedral Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Zagreb. 

The Holy Assembly of Bishops elected His Eminence Metropolitan Porfirije of Zagreb-Ljubljana, PhD, as the new Serbian Patriarch, in its convocation in Memorial Cathedral of Saint Sava in Belgrade on 18 February 2021.