The body of Serbian Patriarch Pavle was moved around 3 PM from the Military Medical Academy into the Serbian Patriarchy, where the mass will be served.

The procession that escorted the body of His Holiness included Metropolitan of Montenegro and Littoral Amfilohije and Serbian President Boris Tadic, as well as State Secretary Dragan Curovic on behalf of the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Metropolitan Amfilohije and Bishop of Hvostan Atanasije with clergy will serve the mass in the Patriarchy chapel. The mass will be attended by Belgrade Roman Catholic Archbishop Stanislav Hocevar, Vatican Nuncio in Belgrade Orlando Antonini, and Cardinal Franc Rode.

A large number of believers gathered in front of the Cathedral, where after the memorial service, the body of Patriarch Pavle will lie in state.

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Pavle was born Gojko Stojcevic on September 11, 1914 to a farmer family in the village Kucanci in the county of Donji Miholjac, in Slavonia.

He finished primary school in his native village and junior high school in Tuzla. He graduated from the Fourth Men's Gymnasium in Belgrade and simultaneously attended the Medical School.

He studied at a seminary in Sarajevo and graduated in 1936, and the Theology Faculty in Belgrade, where he previously completed two years of the Medical School.

He took monastic vow in Blagovestenje Monastery in the Ovcar-Kablar Gorge and was given monastic name Pavle on the eve of the Annunciation in 1946 where he was ordained a hiearodeacon the same year.

On December 1, 1990, Bishop Pavle was elected the 44th Serbian Patriarch and took over St Sava’s throne from Patriarch German. His tenure as Patriarch lasted 19 years.