Amfilohije (; , English: Amphilochius; born Risto Radović, 7 January 193830 October 2020) was a bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church, theologian, university professor, author and translator. He was first the Bishop of Banat between 1985 and 1990, and then the Metropolitan Bishop of Montenegro and the Littoral from 1990, until his death. As the metropolitan bishop, he was the primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro. He was one of the most influential leaders of the Serbian Church, and was among the three candidates for the Serbian patriarchate both in 1990 and 2010.
Amfilohije's honorary and liturgical title was: His Grace, Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, of Zeta, Brda (the Highlands) and the Skenderija, and the Exarch of the Holy Throne of Peć.
More than 569 churches and monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro were built or reconstructed during his reign. A noted theologian and author, his bibliography consists of more than 1,000 items and his selected works were published in 36 volumes.
Amfilohije was described as one of the most powerful people in Montenegro, as well as one of the most influential individuals within the Bishops' Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the supreme body of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Biography Early life, education and personal life Amfilohije was born as Risto Radović () in Bare Radovića in Lower Morača, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Montenegro). He was a descendant of voivode Mina Radović who participated in the unification of the Morača tribe with the Principality of Montenegro in 1820.
He studied at St. Sava's Seminary and graduated from the Faculty of Theology in 1962 in Belgrade, which at the time was a part of the SFR Yugoslavia. During his time as a seminarian in the late 1950s, he knew Justin Popović, a SOC cleric and admired the uncompromising position he held toward modern civilisation. He also studied classical philology in Belgrade.Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral official site: Његово Високопреосвештенство Архиепископ Цетињски Митрополит Црногорско-приморски и Егзарх Пећког Трона Амфилохије (Радовић) (His Eminence Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral and Exarch of the Throne of Peć Amfilohije (Radovic))
In Paris, Amfilohije studied at the Russian St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute, in Rome at the Pontifical Oriental Institute and in Bern at the Old Catholic Faculty. He completed his postgraduate studies in Bern and Rome, and then moved to Greece where he lived for seven years, took monastic vows (and monastic name Amfilohije, eng. Amphilochius) 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 was made an honorary doctor of the Moscow Theological Academy (2006) and of the Institute of Theology of the Belarusian State University (2008). He spoke Greek, Russian, Italian, German, French and used Old Greek, Latin and Old Church Slavonic. He was a member of the Association of Writers of Serbia and Montenegro.
Bishop of Banat (1980s) Named Bishop of Banat in the 1980s, he held the title until the end of 1990. During the late 1980s, Amfilohije was one along of Serbian intellectuals at time involved in anti-Catholic speeches and accused the Roman Catholic Church and Croatians of endangering Serbs within Croatia. "accusation of Croats and the Roman Catholic Church of allegedly endangering the Serb people in Croatia. Many Serbian intellectuals became involved in this anti-Catholic propaganda, but the names of Vasilije Krestic, historian, Dobrica Cosic, writer, and Amfilohije Radovic, Orthodox bishop from Banat stand out." In 1990, Amfilohije became a candidate for Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC). A week before political elections in Serbia, on 6 December 1990, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević attempted to get control of the SOC through supporting his preferred candidates such as Amfilohije for patriarch. Amfilohije did not succeed in getting many votes and as such did not make the final shortlist of candidates for the role. A few days later the elderly Danilo Dajković retired and in December 1990 Amfilohije was elected to succeed him as Metropolitan of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, a position he held until his death. Guests that were present at his inauguration ceremony were Matija Bećković, Novak Kilibarda and Radovan Karadžić. The arrival of Amfilohije to his new role was greeted by numerous people that ranged from high ranking politicians to Serbian nationalists in Montenegro.
At Cetinje in December 1990 public protests by people against his appointment as metropolitan followed, due to the reputation of Amfilohije as a Serb nationalist and his denial of a separate Montenegrin identity.
As Metropolitan of Montenegro in the early 1990s
Amfilohije was elected Metropolitan of Montenegro in December 1990 and enthroned in the Cetinje Monastery on 30 December that year.АМФИЛОХИЈЕ АРХИЕПИСКОП ЦЕТИЊСКИ, МИТРОПОЛИТ ЦРНОГОРСКО-ПРИМОРСКИ И ЕГЗАРХ СВЕТОГ ТРОНА ПЕЋКОГ
At the time, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro had re-emerged as a spiritual and political force following the fall of communism and the subsequent dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1992). In his role as metropolitan, Amfilohije initiated a programme to construct new churches, monasteries and rebuild old churches. Other initiatives by Amfilohije resulted in more monks, nuns, priests and people into the church and an increase of Montenegrins baptised into Orthodoxy during a time when his relations with the Yugoslav Montenegrin government were strained. Relics from the bodies of saints were used to rally and to "re-Christianise" the population by the SOC such as those from St. Basil that were divided and later sent out to other monasteries in Yugoslavia. In Montenegro, new churches exhibited relics of martyrs that had died at the Jasenovac concentration camp to remind parishioners of the suffering that Serbs had undergone in the World War II. Amfilohije campaigned to rehabilitate Nikolaj Velimirović, an interwar Serbian Orthodox cleric imprisoned by the Axis powers during the World War II whom he viewed as a martyr.
In Cetinje, Amfilohije opened a new theological school, a publishing house known as Svetigora and a radio station called Radio Svetagora. Amfilohije was the main supervisor of his publishing house Svetigora.
In 1992, Metropolitan Amfilohije founded Svetigora, a periodical journal of the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, which is still published monthly. Journal contains mostly the church teachings, poetry, lectures, spiritual lessons, reportages, news and chronicles from the Metropolitanate, the Serbian Church and the all other Orthodox churches. In 1998, Metropolitan Amfilohije also started nationwide radio station of the same name.
At the time his relations with the Montenegrin government were lukewarm and he lobbied for religious education by the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral to be compulsory in schools.
More than 569 churches and monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church were built or reconstructed during his reign. During his thirty-year rule of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Montenegro, soup kitchens were opened in several cities in Montenegro, from which currently about 600 most vulnerable families get a hot meal, usually at home, every day, while the number of those receiving one-time food assistance is also large.Topli obrok uz blagoslov: Mitropolija crnogorsko-primorska pomaže i hrani nevoljnike u svoje četiri narodne kuhinje, Večernje novosti (2019)Кад сиромаштво сатера у ћошак: Како ради народна кухиња у Подгорици, Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral (2018)
Amfilohije became a prominent advocate and supporter of Serbdom and was a self declared Serbian nationalist. His appointment as metropolitan coincided with the rise of Slobodan Milošević and the mobilisation of the Serb population in Yugoslavia that was supported by the SOC, along with an increase in Serbian nationalist sentiment. The SOC increasingly embraced a nationalist path, mainly by radical elements within its ranks as represented by the figure of Amfilohije. He and several other SOC bishops claimed that the responsibility of Yugoslavia's problems were based upon genocidal tendencies among Yugoslav ethnic groups and the West, with its modernity and ideologies such as communism, individualism, materialism and secularism. Amfilohije made comments on the situation in Kosovo and claimed that expansionist countries of the Catholic and Protestant West and Muslim East were "an insane wind trying ceaselessly to extinguish this sacred lamp", defined as Serbia.
As the Yugoslav Wars spread, Amfilohije along with other high ranking clerics strengthened their positions as the older generation of clerics and theologians that made compromises with the past Yugoslav communist government were sidelined. During this period Amfilohije made anti-Muslim and anti-Croat comments. In 1992, claims against Bosniaks, Croats and Albanians were made and repeated by high ranking Serb Orthodox clergy such as Amfilohije that the Serbs faced a genocide from them through a global conspiracy assisted by the Vatican City and Germany. In the early 1990s, Amfilohije and Bishop Vasilije Kačavenda deepened religious and ethnic divisions during the Yugoslav Wars and alleged that a global conspiracy existed against the SOC. Amfilohije stated that the "natural space" of the Serbs lay with the Orthodox East and that they needed to fight the Protestant and Catholic West and also Islam, as according to him "without death there will be no resurrection". "According to the Serbian patriarch Amfilohije Radovic, the "natural space" for the Serbian people is the Orthodox East. And it must fight against the Catholic and Protestant West, as well as against Islam: "without death there will be no resurrection".
Amfilohije became a prominent contributor to debates regarding identity and sovereignty issues of Montenegro. A number of his views are on the statehood and nationhood of Montenegro and identity of Montenegrins which Amfilohije regards as being of Serb ethnic origin or the "best and purest Serbs" consisting of elements such as Kosovo, St. Sava and the Nemanjić dynasty. Other positions include that the Serb ancestors of the Montenegrins fled from the control of Islam to Montenegro and from there the Serbian nation had the opportunity to revive itself after the defeat suffered by Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo (1389). It led to strong disagreements with the Montenegrin government that over time favoured independence from Serbia. For Amfilohije the Montenegrin nation was invented by communists such as Tito and Milovan Đilas along with separatists supported by external forces that sought to separate Montenegrins from their historic origins and split Serbs within the wider region.
He viewed people advocating for the canonically unrecognized Montenegrin Orthodox Church (MOC) as "heretical and schismatic" that waged a campaign against the SOC and labelled Montenegrin autocephalists as "Crnolatinaši" (Black Latins), a derogatory expression used for dogmatic and fanatical Catholic clergy. Amfilohije stated that the MOC was a "political entity" and that Montenegrin autocephalists were "Titoists" and "godless" that came from "non-church circles" and an irreligious background.