Innocent (Pavlovich)

He was born in 1840 in аabac in the family of the famous, influential at the time of the court archpriest John Pavlovich.

He graduated from elementary school, lower school and two classes of the Belgrade Theological Seminary in his homeland.

In 1856, Yakov Pavlovich, although he did not differ in special abilities, was sent to study at the Kiev Theological Academy . There, however, they found him insufficiently prepared and therefore placed first in the Kiev Theological Seminary . Here he somewhat supplemented his training, then again entered the Academy, but nevertheless finished it in 1861, unenviably, without a diploma and an academic degree, only received a certificate that he had finished the course as a “lover of spiritual enlightenment”. However, the name of his father, sympathy for their family of Obrenovichi and party-like minded people (liberals) paved the way for him ^[1] .

July 31, 1863 elevated to the rank of priest .

In 1863-1870 he worked as a teacher in the gymnasium in Kragujevac, and in 1870-1880 - in the Belgrade Theological Seminary.

In 1871, he wrote and published the famous polemic pamphlet against the anti-church ideology of Vaso Pelagic ^[2] .

Married to a Russian, the daughter of a priest in the Shchekavitsky cemetery in Kiev, he established Russian customs in his house. Thanks to his wife, as well as his long stay in Russia and close contact with the Russians who came to Belgrade, Metropolitan Innokenty knew Russian well and was considered among the Serbs to be the best expert on the Russian language. Translated from Russian works on pedagogy and psychology, but the most important translation was the four-volume translation of "Theology of the dogmatic" Metropolitan Makarii (Bulgakov) , which became a classic.

In 1880-1886 he was the head of the Department of Religion at the Ministry of Education and Church Affairs.

Widowed, on November 24, 1892, he was tonsured a monk with the name Innocent.

On August 2, 1894, he was ordained bishop of Nis .

February 15, 1898 by the will of the court and power was elected Metropolitan of Belgrade.

His name was criticized due to the fact that his church ministry was overshadowed by a number of scams, in which some members of his family were involved. The sharp discontent in Serbian society was caused by the blessing of Metropolitan Innocent on the unequal marriage of King Alexander Obrenovic and Draghi Mashin . During the reign of Metropolitan Innocent there was a decline in discipline in the Belgrade Metropolis, where frequent cases of symony were observed, as well as the arbitrary and unsightly behavior of individual bishops.

According to the recall of the Russian consul Aleksey Belyaev, “Innocent was“ mediocrity ”in his youth, and was not noted for anything during his long pastoral career. His influence on affairs in Serbia was nil. Having neither firm convictions nor strength of character, he was simply an extreme opportunist , and, accordingly, with changing influence, he treated with equal approval everything that was going on around him. So, he approved the marriage of King Alexander to Drag, and subsequently in the same way approved their murder and, although he owed everything to Obrenovich, he welcomed the return of Karageorgievich ” ^[1] .

Only the unexpected death of this bishop on May 19, 1905 put an end to an unpleasant situation that could lead to a weakening of the authority of the church organization in the Kingdom of Serbia ^[3] .