The Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana, His Eminence Porphyrios (born Prvoslav Perić), was elected on Thursday afternoon as the 46th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Church bells at the Memorial Cathedral of St. Sava in Belgrade rang out joyously with the announcement of the election.
After an Archieratical Liturgy, an electoral assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Church choose three hierarchs as finalists for the Patriarchal throne. The names of the three — Porphyrios, along with the Bishop of Bačka, Irinej, and Banja Luka, Ephraim, written down and placed in separate envelopes, which were then placed in a Bible.
Archimandrite Matej was chosen to select one of the envelopes.
The envelope he selected and opened contained the name of His Eminence Porphyrios.
Immediately afterwards, bishops attending the assembly congratulated the Metropolitan, with all then exclaiming “axios” – Greek for “worthy of”.