Amfilohije Radović

Early life, education and personal life

Amfilohije was born Risto Radović (Ристо Радовић) in Bare Radovića in Lower Morača, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Montenegro). He is a descendant of vojvoda Mina Radović who participated in the unification of the Morača tribe with the Principality of Montenegro in 1820. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade in 1962. He also studied classical philosophy at the University of Belgrade. He completed his postgraduate studies in Bern and Rome, and then moved to Greece where he lived for seven years, took monastic vows 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. In 1976 he became a docent and later professor of Orthodox catechesis at the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade. He is a honorary doctor of the Moscow Theological Academy since 2006 and of the Institute of Theology of the Belarusian State University since 2008. He also speaks Greek, Russian, Italian, German and French. He was a member of the Association of Writers of Serbia and Montenegro.

Offices

Named Bishop of Banat in 1985, he held the title until 1991. That year, he was picked to be the Metropolitan of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, a position he holds to this day. On November 13, 2007, after Serbian Patriarch Pavle (1914–2009) had been transferred to a clinical center due to his poor health, the Holy Synod of the SOC elected Radović to perform the duties of the Patriarch. Patriarch Pavle died on November 15, 2009, and Amfilohije continued his role as Guardian of the Throne. He ceased to perform that duty after the election of Bishop Irinej of Niš as the new Patriarch on January 22, 2010.

Political views

Amfilohije wrote an essay which was included in the 1996 book The Lamb of God and the Beast from the Abyss. He was a supporter and close friend of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, and in 2005 urged Karadžić, who evaded capture from the ICTY indictment, to give himself up. Amfilohije supported continued Serbian–Montenegrin unionism amid the 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum.

Amfilohije has denounced NATO, calling it a "militaristic, totalitarian, terrorist, international organization". The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro has called for a referendum on Montenegro's NATO accession. Protests have been held, organized by the Montenegrin opposition, made up of the mainly Serb community. Amfilohije has publicly criticized Montenegro's "separation from Mother Russia".

Works