Still, despite is sacred character, its construction has also been marked by numerous controversies, especially on financing, which have rumbled on over the years.
Project with government stamp of approval
Works on interior decoration in the church of Saint Sava in Belgrade. Photo: Wikimedia commons/Dimitrije Gol
The idea for the church emerged in the second half of the 19th century, after Serbia regained its independence. In 1900, then King Aleksandar Obrenovic declared it a “national edifice”.
Construction in the Vracar hill area of Belgrade started in the 1930s; the first stone was laid in 1935. The hilly site was chosen as the place where it is believed the Ottoman conquerors of Serbia burned the relics of St Sava back in 1594.
But from the start, there were funding problems. The major part of the construction site was donated by a Scottish missionary, Francis Mackenzie, who had bought it in the late 19th century. Other donations followed from the Karadjordjevic royal family.
But work stopped when Germany invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, and did not resume for decades in the post-war communist period. It only restarted in the mid-1980s after Yugoslavia’s longtime communist ruler, Josip Broz Tito, had died.
On May 1985, Patriarch German and the Serbian bishops held an inaugural service at the church attended by a huge crowd of about 100,000 people.
The event was a historic turning point, marking the collapse of the communist system in Serbia, and Europe. The 4,000-ton central dome was lifted into place in 1989.
New impetus followed the democratic changes in Serbia of 2000. After fall of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia’s new prime minister, Zoran Djindic, and then Patriarch, Pavle, renewed Church-state relations. One of the first things they resumed was construction of the cathedral.
Djindjic supported collecting money for the cathedral. Since then, Serbia’s authorities have consistently supported the Church in financing the cathedral.
One of the ways chosen to do this was through issuing special stamps. From 2001, the government and Church reached several deals on printing stamps whose income was used to fund the cathedral.
Exterior construction was completed in 2004 and interior work was completed this year. The 15,000 square meters of unique mosaics have been completed with Russia’s financial help, and with the help of Russian artists.
Complaints about misuse of money
Serbian Patriarch Irinej in Belgrade, Serbia, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC
Stefan Saric, Dean of the Cathedral and Vicar Bishop for Patriarch Irinej, has said construction of the cathedral has so far cost about 100 million euros.
Some 40 million has gone on the mosaics alone, with other interior works costing 10 million. External construction cost 50 million euros.
The Serbian state has covered almost half of this sum, giving some 40 million euros, but Russian sources have also been significant, giving about 10 million euros. The rest has come from various other donations.
But the money has caused controversies and allegations of misuse. In 2015, after some of the cathedral clergy were accused of stealing cash intended for the church, Patriarch Irinej replaced all the clergy staffing the cathedral.
Another controversy followed the appointment of Archimandrite Saric as new dean in 2017, owing to his mixed reputation in Serbia as a kind of spiritual advisor to Svetlana Raznatovic “Ceca”, pop singer widow of the notorious Serbian paramilitary gangster, Zeljko Raznatovic “Arkan”, killed in 2000.
In 2020, prosecutors questioned Saric over allegations that he had been involved in the abduction and beating of an arts student in Belgrade, in connection with the student’s girlfriend.
Proud of their faith, yes – religious, not so much
Religion, nationality and nationalism are closely intermingled in Serbia. Politicians and Church leaders are connected by common interests.
For example, 88 per cent of the Serbian population identity as Orthodox, although only about 7 per cent actually attend weekly church services.
As largely nominal Christians, Serbs often prefer to show off their religion in public rather than pray, read the Bible or go to church.
At the same time, Serbian believers are proud of their national and religious identity. According to a Pew Research Center survey in 2016, almost 95 per cent of believers are proud to be Orthodox Christians.
Serbia is not unusual in this respect. All over the Balkan region, religion was, and is, an important part of national identity. Many in the region embrace religious identity as an element of their national belonging, even if they don’t practice their faith.
In Turkey, President Recep Erdogan is well known for using Islam to help rule the country. This year, in a populist gesture, he converted the famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul – St Sava’s role model – back from a secular museum into a mosque.
In Ukraine, former president Petro Poroshenko also used the issue of the Orthodox Church’s demand for independence, or autocephaly, to win support for his presidency. In his case, however, the strategy backfired; The Ukrainian Church gained autocephaly in January 2019 but he still lost the election that April.
In Serbia, while the Church has interests in freedom to express religion, funding, religious education and more, the state often uses the Church for domestic and foreign politics, to score political points.
President Vucic has cultivated the Church to secure its support for his presidential work, and for his policy on the former province of Kosovo – a matter of huge interest to both Church and state.
The government supplies useful financial support to the Church and in turn expects the Church to be an ally. He naturally wants to bring to completion the prestigious cathedral during his mandate.
The Church is aware of this strategy, but knows good relations with the authorities are also in its interest. It wants to avoid disputes and finally finish the most important church it has built in centuries.
But the Church walks a tightrope with the state. Its evangelical mission is not geopolitical game. And its widely known support for President Vucic is not shared by all the clergy and laity.
Some feel deeply disappointed with the Church’s statements and acts, losing trust in the Church precisely because of its ties to the authorities.
But both sides in Serbia come together over the St Sava Cathedral. Both see it as a crucial symbol of unity among the people, as well as a fitting monument to perhaps the most important figure in Serbian history.
The church represents Serbia’s pride in its long history, including its victory during two world wars. More than just a church, it is a symbol of the people’s power and strength.
Its style, based on Hagia Sophia, with a mixture of modern and Serbian-Byzantine motifs, symbolically establishes a connection between Serbia’s past, present and future.
For Orthodox Serbs, it is intended for future generations as signpost and confirmation of who they are, what Serbs can do and where they are going.
Not everyone is completely uncritical
Protesters hold a banner depicting Saint Sava during the protest against the strict measures to fight the coronavirus in Belgrade, Serbia, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC
While most Serbs appear to support the construction of the new cathedral, not everyone is equally enthusiastic.
Media outlets, especially those opposing the current Serbian authorities, have put a focus on the issue of money.
They regularly underline the fact that Serbia is defined in its constitution as a secular state, and also that religious communities in Serbia are excluded from public finance reports.
Pro-government media outlets mostly cheer on construction of the cathedral and avoid tricky funding stories. They focus on the cathedral’s importance for Serbian history and people and strongly support state donations for the construction, including those made during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
While the Orthodox clergy might normally be considered the strongest supporters of the new cathedral, this summer some anti-government media caused a stir when they published a more critical statement from Bishop Grigorije of Dusseldorf in Germany, who controversially said the Church should not build so many churches at a time when some hospitals did not even have new towels.
However, the statement was in fact an old one, reprinted, from 2013 – not from today.
At the time, in 2013, the Patriarch reacted by saying that he didn’t understand how anybody could compare a Church-state project of such national importance with shortages in the health system, which he said the Church had supported often with donations.
Symbol of enduring relationship with Russia
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (R). Photo: EPA-EFE/ALEXEI NIKOLSKY/SPUTNIK /KREMLIN POOL / POOL MANDATORY CREDIT
The completion of the cathedral is another reminder of Serbia’s close connections to Russia, the biggest Orthodox country in the world.
This is not just about a common religious identity. Throughout history, Serbia generally has seen Russia as its most important ally, drawing claims in the West that Serbia resembles a “Russian colony”.
In the most recent crisis in Orthodox world, over Ukraine, whose Church was demanding autocephaly from the Moscow Patriarch, the Serbian Orthodox Church naturally supported the Russian side against the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who issued the decree in 2019 granting Ukraine’s Church spiritual independence.
Both the Russian Patriarch, Kirill, and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, are popular in Serbia, especially among Orthodox people.
The Serbian Church always looks to Russia when it needs help, and has received it over its own challenges, in North Macedonia, where the church unilaterally broke away in the 1960s, and in Montenegro, where some people also want an autocephalous Church.
Slavic-Orthodox brotherhood between Serbia and Russia was visible in the work on St Sava Cathedral from the start.
During the first competition for an architectural plan, the local “Society for the construction of St Sava Cathedral” turned to the Russian Academy of Arts in St Petersburg in 1904 for help.
That partnership has continued to today. After the Russian state-owned energy corporation Gazprom in 2008 agreed to buy 51 per cent of Serbia’s state-owned oil company NIS, it soon after said it would help cover the money for the mosaics in St Sava’s Cathedral. During his visit to Belgrade in 2011, Putin confirmed the financial contribution to the mosaics.
Mladen Aleksic is a theologian and religious teacher from Serbia.
The opinions expressed in the Comment section are those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of BIRN.
