Amfilohije, Metropolitan of Montenegro

He was a descendant of voivode Mina Radović who participated in the unification of the Morača tribe with the Principality of Montenegro in 1820.

Amfilohije (Амфилохије;, English: Amphilochius; born Risto Radović, 7 January 193830 October 2020) was a bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church, theologian, university professor, author and translator.

During his time as a seminarian in the late 1950s, he knew Justin Popović, a SOC cleric and admired the uncompromising position he held toward modern civilisation.

He also studied classical philology in Belgrade.

In Paris, Amfilohije studied at the Russian St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute, in Rome at the Pontifical Oriental Institute and in Bern at the Old Catholic Faculty.

He completed his postgraduate studies in Bern and Rome, and then moved to Greece where he lived for seven years, took monastic vows (and monastic name Amfilohije, eng. Amphilochius) and worked as a hieromonk of the Greek Orthodox Church.

In Athens, he completed his doctoral thesis on Saint Gregory Palamas and earned a doctor of theology degree.

After spending one year at Mount Athos, he moved to Paris and worked as a professor at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute.

He studied at St. Sava's Seminary and graduated from the Faculty of Theology in 1962 in Belgrade, which at the time was a part of the SFR Yugoslavia.

In 1976 he became a docent and later professor of Orthodox catechesis at the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade.

Named Bishop of Banat in the 1980s, he held the title until the end of 1990.

During the late 1980s, Amfilohije engaged in anti-Catholic propaganda and accused the Roman Catholic Church and Croats of endangering Serbs within Croatia.

He was first the Bishop of Banat between 1985 and 1990, and then the Metropolitan Bishop of Montenegro and the Littoral from 1990, until his death.

As the metropolitan bishop, he was the primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro.

He was one of the most influential leaders of the Serbian Church, and was among the three candidates for the Serbian patriarchate both in 1990 and 2010.

Amfilohije's honorary and liturgical title was: His Grace, Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, of Zeta, Brda (the Highlands) and the Skenderija, and the Exarch of the Holy Throne of Peć.

More than 569 churches and monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro were built or reconstructed during his reign.

A noted theologian and author, his bibliography consists of more than 1,000 items and his selected works were published in 36 volumes.

Amfilohije was described as one of the most powerful people in Montenegro, as well as one of the most influential individuals within the Bishops' Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the supreme body of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Amfilohije was born as Risto Radović in Bare Radovića in Lower Morača, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Montenegro).

In 1990, Amfilohije became a candidate for Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC).

A week before political elections in Serbia, on 6 December 1990, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević attempted to get control of the SOC through supporting his preferred candidates such as Amfilohije for patriarch.

Amfilohije did not succeed in getting many votes and as such did not make the final shortlist of candidates for the role.

A few days later the elderly Danilo Dajković retired and in December 1990 Amfilohije was elected to succeed him as Metropolitan of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, a position he held until his death.

Guests that were present at his inauguration ceremony were Matija Bećković, Novak Kilibarda and Radovan Karadžić.

The arrival of Amfilohije to his new role was greeted by numerous people that ranged from high ranking politicians to Serbian nationalists in Montenegro.

At Cetinje in December 1990 public protests by people against his appointment as metropolitan followed, due to the reputation of Amfilohije as a Serb nationalist and his denial of a separate Montenegrin identity.

Amfilohije was elected Metropolitan of Montenegro in December 1990 and enthroned in the Cetinje Monastery on 30 December that year.

At the time, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro had re-emerged as a spiritual and political force following the fall of communism and the subsequent dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992).

In his role as metropolitan, Amfilohije initiated a programme to construct new churches, monasteries and rebuild old churches.

Other initiatives by Amfilohije resulted in more monks, nuns, priests and people into the church and an increase of Montenegrins baptised into Orthodoxy during a time when his relations with the Yugoslav Montenegrin government were strained.

Relics from the bodies of saints were used to rally and to "re-Christianise" the population by the SOC such as those from St. Basil that were divided and later sent out to other monasteries in Yugoslavia.

In Montenegro, new churches exhibited relics of martyrs that had died at the Jasenovac concentration camp to remind parishioners of the suffering that Serbs had undergone in the World War II.

Amfilohije campaigned to rehabilitate Nikolaj Velimirović, an interwar Serbian Orthodox cleric imprisoned by the Axis powers during the World War II whom he viewed as a martyr.

In Cetinje, Amfilohije opened a new theological school, a publishing house known as Svetigora and a radio station called Radio Svetagora.

Amfilohije was the main supervisor of his publishing house Svetigora.

In 1992, Metropolitan Amfilohije founded Svetigora, a periodical journal of the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, which is still published monthly.

He was made an honorary doctor of the Moscow Theological Academy (2006) and of the Institute of Theology of the Belarusian State University (2008).

He spoke Greek, Russian, Italian, German, French and used Old Greek, Latin and Old Church Slavonic.

He was a member of the Association of Writers of Serbia and Montenegro.