Vikentije II, Serbian Patriarch

There was a previous Serbian Patriarch Vikentije I who reigned sometime in the period 1755–1758.

Serbian Patriarch Vikentije (II) (Serbian Cyrillic: Викентије, secular name Vitomir Prodanov, Витомир Проданов; 23 August 1890 – 5 July 1958) was the fourth partriach of the reunified Serbian Orthodox Church, from 1950 until his death.^[1]

Early life

Vitomir Prodanov was born on August 23, 1890, in the village of Backo Petrovo Selo, then in the Austria-Hungary. He was born into the family of Đorđe (Ђорђе) and Jelka (Јелка) Prodanov. He completed his elementary education in Backo Petrovo Selo in 1901. After that, he entered the Serbian High School in Novi Sad from which he graduated in 1909. He continued his higher education in the Serbian Orthodox Theology School in Sremski Karlovci, graduating in 1913. He then returned to Backo Petrovo Selo as a teacher. On June 1, 1917, Bishop Georgije (Letić) of Temišvar appointed him consistorial subnotary for the Diocese of Temišvar.

On August 18, 1917, Vitomir took monastic vows in Bezdin Monastery before Archimandrite Issac (Došen) and was given the name Vikentije (Vicentius). He was ordained a deacon on September 12 by Bpishop Georgije. In 1919, he was transferred to the post of consistorial notary of the Eparchy of Bačka. He was raised to the dignity of protodeacon and then archdeacon. From 1921 to 1932 he served as secretary of the executive board of Serbian monasteries. During this time he continued his education at the Philosophical Faculty in Belgrade studying National and Byzantine History. He graduated in 1929. On October 31, 1929, he was ordained a hieromonk and on December 3 he was raised to the rank of archimandrite.

In 1932, he was elected Secretary General of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church. He remained on this position until he was elected titular bishop of Marča, on July 4, 1932. He was consecrated by Serbian Patriarch Varnava, assisted by bishops Irinej of Bačka, Serafim of Raška and Prizren, Sava of Srem, and Platon of Banja Luka. He was a historian and a member of the Society of Historians of Vojvodina. He also was editor-in-chief of its gazette.

Bishop

He remained an auxiliary bishop until 1939 when he was elected Bishop of Zletovo and Strumica. In 1940, he was additionally assigned the task of administrating the Eparchy of Ohrid and Bitola. After the Germans and Bulgarians occupied his eparchies in 1941, he was exiled by Bulgarian fascists and fled to Belgrade. After World War II, the Communist regime did not allow him to return to his duties because they wanted to create a separate "Macedonian Orthodox Church". From 1947 to 1950, he was administrator of Eparchy of Žiča.

Patriarch

He was elected Serbian Patriarch on July 14, 1950. He placed enormous energy into trying to resolve the problem of Pension Security funds for priests of the Serbian Patriarchate. He was strongly opposed to the splitting of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the creation of a separate "Macedonian Orthodox Church".

Patriarch Vikentije died on July 5, 1958 under mysterious circumstances after a session of the Holy Assembly of bishops at which the assembly rejected suggestions from the communist regime to approve the establishment of a separate "Macedonian Orthodox Church". He was buried in the tomb of Metropolitan Mihailo in the Cathedral Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Belgrade.

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