A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Metropolitan Irinej (Kovačević)

(1963–1998)

Milan Kovačević was born to Sreten and Kristine Kovačević on 6 September, 1914, in the village Vrnčani near Gornji Milanovac in the Kingdom of Serbia. Milan completed primary school in his village, and high school in Gornji Milanovac. After completing the course at the Teachers High School, he served as a teacher in the village Ljutovnica near Gornji Milanovac.

In 1941, during World War II, because he was at that time an army reserve officer, he was taken by the Nazis to a camp in Germany, where he remained until 1945. After the liberation, Milan went to England, where he temporarily attended a seminary in Dorchester.

In 1950, he emigrated to the USA, and he enrolled in the Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York, and also in Columbia University.

In October, 1953, Milan entered the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of Saint Sava in Libertyville, Illinois. On 30 December, 1953, he was tonsured to be a monk by Archimandrite Firmilian (Ocokoljić), and he was given the name Irinej. On 31 December, 1953, the Monk Irinej was ordained to the Holy Diaconate in the monastery by Bishop Dionisije, while on April, 1954, the Hierodeacon Irinej was ordained to the priesthood in the monastery by Bishop Dionisije. On 31 August, 1956, the Hieromonk Irinej was elevated to the dignity of igumen (abbot).

In 1961, upon the recommendation of Bishop Dionisije, the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church elevated Igumen Irinej to the dignity of archimandrite.

In 1963, the schism of Bishop Dionisije began. Bishop Dionisije did not accept the decision of the Holy Synod about the creation of 3 new dioceses, namely, “Midwestern America”, “Eastern America” and “Canada and Western America”. This matter also involved political concerns. In that year, Bishop Dionisije summoned the 10th National-Church assembly, which met in Libertyville from November 10-14, 1963. It was decided not to receive any decisions, orders, and instructions of the Holy Assembly of Bishops (“Sabor”) and of the Holy Synod in Belgrade in Yugoslavia, as long as the Serbian government remained a communist regime. The assembly rejected all decisions about the suspension of Bishop Dionisije, and about the division of the US-Canadian eparchy into 3 new ones. It was also decided to declare that the American-Canadian Diocese was now free and independent.

At the same Tenth National-Church Assembly, Archimandrite Irinej was elected to become a bishop. On 7 December, 1963, archimandrite Irinej was ordained to the episcopate by Bishop Dionisije along with two Ukrainian Orthodox bishops, Bishop Genadije and Bishop Gregory. On the Feast of the Dormition on 28 August, 1983, the Free Serbian American-Canadian Bishop Irinej (Kovačević), the Bishop of Australia and New Zealand Petar (Bankerović) and the Western European Bishop Vasilije (Veinović) proclaimed at the New Gračanica Monastery near Chicago, the establishment of the Synod of Bishops. The New Gračanica Monastery served as the new headquarters of the American-Canadian Diocese. The monastery was consecrated on 12 August, 1984. At that time, Bishop Irinej, the Free Serbian Bishop for the United States and Canada, was declared to be a metropolitan.

In 1992, at the invitation of Pavle the Patriarch of Serbia, Metropolitan Irinej led a delegation of priests and other persons from the whole of the Free Serbian Orthodox Church to Serbia. A reconciliation proposal was made, in which the Free Serbian Orthodox Church would be accepted within the patriarchate as the “New Gračanica Metropolitanate” (amongst other constitutional edits). The reconciliation was achieved. The mutual eucharistic unity was confirmed with a joint Divine Liturgy in Belgrade in February, 1992.

The validity of the hierarchal ordinations was recognised about the Bishop of the Diocese of America and Canada and the Metropolitan of the Free Serbian Orthodox Church, Irenej (Kovačević), as well as the hierarchs : Bishop Dimitrije (Balać), Bishop Petar (Bankerović), Bishop Vasilije (Veinović) and Bishop Damaskin (Davidović).

The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church replaced the Episcopal Council of the New Gračanica Metropolitanate. Every new diocesan hierarch of the New Gračanica Metropolitanate is chosen by the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church from amongst the candidates entered in the list of candidates on the proposal of the Episcopal Council of the New Gračanica Metropolitanate. The elected candidate is ordained by the Patriarch of Serbia.

After a long and serious illness, Metropolitan Irinej (Kovačević) fell asleep in the Lord on 2 February, 1998, in the New Gračanica Monastery, near Chicago. After the funeral services on 8 February, 1998, he was entombed in the monastery, on the right side.


SA

 

People Directory

Nemanja Bala

Nemanja Bala (writer/director/producer) was born and raised in the former Yugoslavia. At the age of nineteen, he received a tennis scholarship to study in the United States at the University of Hartford, where he majored in film studies and began making short fiction and documentary films. His work has been shown on Serbian National Television and the festival circuit. While at Columbia University’s Graduate Film Division, he concentrated in screenwriting and received his MFA in 2006.

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Publishing

History, Truth, Holiness

by Bishop Maxim Vasiljevic

Bishop Maxim’s first book, described by Fr. John Breck as an “exceptionally important collection of essays” contributing to both the theology of being and also contemporary theological questions, is now available! Christos Yannaras describes Bishop Maxim as “a theologian who illumines” and Fr. John McGuckin identifies his work as “deeply biblical and patristic, academically learned yet spiritually rich.” The first half of the book collects papers emphasizing theological ontology and epistemology, reminding us how both the mystery of the Holy Trinity and that of the Incarnation demand that we rethink every philosophical supposition; it includes chapters on holiness as otherness, truth and history, and the biochemistry of freedom. The second half of the book features lectures dedicated to the theological questions posed by modern theology, including studies of Orthodox and Roman Catholic ecclesiology, liturgics, and the theology of icons.