German, Serbian Patriarch

When Patriarch Vikentije II suddenly died on July 5, 1958, internal strife struck the church leadership and no agreement could be reached on who would succeed him. German was not even appointed as the guardian of the throne (acting patriarch), instead the bishop of Braničevo, Hrizostom Vojinović was appointed to vacate the post. It is believed that German's election was a compromise, but the still popular story is that Aleksandar Ranković, the top Serbian Communist official at that time, and later Josip Broz Tito's deputy, entered the Holy Synod's session, bringing German inside, and saying: "This is your new patriarch!"

German was elected the 43rd Patriarch of Peć on September 14, 1958. However, some sources claim a much higher number, as a result of over a dozen of people who occupied the throne, but were not officially ordained or recognized as such (such as several rebel-patriarchs in the 16th century during the Ottoman occupation) or the Patriarchs of Karlovci in Austria-Hungary which are not counted in the list of official patriarchs (especially not as patriarchs of Peć, instead calling themselves patriarchs of the Serbs).

Like most Orthodox churches in the Eastern Bloc, the Serbian Orthodox Church under German was forced to strike a modus vivendi with the ruling League of Communists in order to procure the space it needed to operate. The diaspora priests, led by the vocally anti-communist Bishop Dionisije, claimed that the Belgrade "red priests" had acquiesced too early.[3] After the Holy Synod started a trial against Dionisije for allegations about his personal life, he went into schism with the church in November 1963.[4] Starting in 1977, the group assumed the name "Free Serbian Orthodox Church". It was reconciled with the SOC in 1992, under German's successor Pavle.[5]

The schism of the Macedonian Orthodox Church is a much deeper and complicated issue. It began in 1958, the very year of German's election, with an allegedly willing acceptance of the autonomy of Ohrid Archbishopric proclaimed by the archbishop Dositej. This was a great blow to German's religious authority as it was a forced acceptance, pushed by the Communist Party. In the next 9 years, the patriarch and archbishop held several joint liturgies, even with the heads of other Orthodox Churches. However, in 1967, archbishop Dositej completely split his archbishopric (within the borders of the SR Macedonia) from the mother church, claiming heritage from the historical Archbishopric of Ohrid, which had been non-existent for 200 years. German and the Serbian Orthodox Church, claiming the separation was forced and uncanonical (in other words, they deemed it a church established by the Communists) ended any canonical communication with the Macedonian Orthodox Church. In turn, German's example was followed by all the other Orthodox Churches. The problem continued after German and the breakup of Yugoslavia, and it became a highly political issue, not only with the Serbian Orthodox Church, but with the Church of Greece and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. This schism continued until 2022, when the Macedonian church reconciled with the Serbian Patriarchate and was granted full autonomy and subsequently autocephaly by Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia.

Grave of Patriarch German of Serbia in Belgrade's St. Mark's Church

German set to revitalize the Serbian Orthodox Church, which (like other religious communities in Yugoslavia) received no state support. During his entire tenure, he kept a low profile, while achieving certain goals in this direction. Despite harsh conditions, he managed to form several new dioceses: Western Europe (1969), Australia (1973), Vranje (1975) and Canada (1983).

He oversaw the finishing works on the new seminary complex of buildings in Belgrade (including the campus) in 1958, so today the entire neighborhood surrounding the complex is known as Bogoslovija (Serbian for seminary). He also opened new seminary in the Krka monastery in SR Croatia. He was very involved in appointing bishops, staunchly pushing his own candidates, especially in the case of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral after the Communists arrested Metropolitan Arsenije Bradvarević in 1954, but German managed to appoint his protégé, Danilo Dajković in 1961. He also sent many priests to SR Montenegro as clerical activities had almost completely ceased there after the war.

In 1984, German visited the site of the Jasenovac concentration camp, saying a now famous line: "To forgive, we must ...to forget, we must not" (Опростити морамо, заборавити не смемо).[6]

Many consider German's greatest achievement to be his successful campaign for the resumption of the construction of the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, which was stopped in 1941. In 26 years from his appointment, he urged the Communist government 88 times until they finally authorized the construction to continue in 1984. Being a massive project, it took a long time and the church was completed in 2021.

Patriarch German was a pragmatic religious leader in times that were very oppressive for religion. After the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980, he slowly pushed church issues as Yugoslav society changed and nationalism grew among the various peoples, and in the end he was universally popular among the Serbs and had become a part of the Serbian social elite.

In 1989, patriarch German broke his hip, which led to a series of surgeries and repeated injuries, so the already old patriarch was unable to perform his duties. As a result of this, the Holy Synod declared him incapacitated on November 30, 1990, and appointed the metropolitan bishop of Zagreb and Ljubljana Jovan Pavlović as the guardian of the throne and elected the new patriarch, Pavle, on December 1, 1990. Patriarch German died in the VMA hospital in Belgrade on August 27, 1991, aged 92, and was buried in Belgrade's St. Mark's Church.

His tenure of 32 years is one of the longest in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

He was awarded the Order of Saint Sava,[7] Order of the Yugoslav flag, Legion of Honour, Order of George I, National Order of the Cedar and a number of other decorations and awards.[8]