Serbia Commits Additional Funding to Complete Church of St. Sava

BELGRADE — Patr. Porfirije and Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut signed an agreement on June 28 providing additional state funding for the completion of the Church of St. Sava in Belgrade, in a ceremony attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and held on the feast of Vidovdan in the crypt of the monumental church.

The agreement allocates an additional €6.5 million ($7.4 million) for final works on the church, bringing the total amount invested by the Serbian state in the project over the past 12 years to €94.5 million ($108 million), according to President Vučić. The signing ceremony took place in the crypt dedicated to Holy Prince Lazar, a setting both church and state leaders described as symbolically appropriate for the occasion.

Addressing those gathered, President Vučić called the Church of St. Sava "a great work for our Church without which neither our people nor our state could survive." He emphasized the Serbian government's financial support for the project, noting that the state had invested €88 million ($100 million) in the church's construction over the previous decade, and said he was proud of Serbia's role in helping complete what he described as one of the nation's greatest spiritual and cultural projects.

Vučić also praised Patr. Porfirije for his leadership and for his concern for Serbs in Kosovo and elsewhere, saying that the unity of the Serbian state, the Serbian people, and the Serbian Orthodox Church remained "unbreakable."

In his remarks, Patr. Porfirije described St. Sava and Holy Prince Lazar as the twin pillars of Serbian spiritual and historical identity. He reflected on the long history of the church's construction, noting that its cornerstone had been consecrated in 1939 and that generations of hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and faithful had labored to bring the project to completion.

"Today, we stand on foundations that we did not lay ourselves," the Patriarch said. "We inherit the prayers, effort, sacrifice, and hope of many who before us wanted to build a church worthy of St. Sava."

Patr. Porfirije expressed gratitude to the Serbian government, President Vučić, and Prime Minister Macut for their continued support, emphasizing that the Church of St. Sava belongs not to any individual generation or institution, but to the entire Serbian people. He described the church as "a house of prayer, a place of encounter between man and God and brother and brother," and prayed that it would continue to serve as the spiritual center of the Serbian nation for generations to come.

Previously, the UOJ reported that Patr. Porfirije hosted OCA Abp. Michael in Belgrade.