Investiture of Metropolitan Joanikije in Podgorica, Montenegro

On the evening of 4 September 2021, His Royal Highness Crown Prince Davit Bagrationi Mukhran Batoni, Head of the Royal House of Georgia, attended a gala dinner organised for a small number of selected guests, mostly attending hierarchs, at Podgorica’s Hotel CUE.

His Royal Highness was once again accorded the highest respect and esteem, together with His Royal Highness Prince Filip Karađorđević of Serbia and Yugoslavia and his wife, Her Royal Highness Princess Danica Karađorđević of Serbia and Yugoslavia.

During the gala dinner, with the blessing of His Holiness Porfirije, Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, and Serbian Patriarch, an investiture ceremony was held for His Eminence Joanikije II, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Zeta, Brda and Skenderija, and Exarch of the Holy Throne of Peć. His Eminence received the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Seamless Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the rank of Grand Cross.

His Royal Highness conducted the investiture with the assistance of Mr Aleksandar Đurđev, Vice-Rector of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Seamless Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Serbia and a Member of the Parliament of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina; the Reverend Deacon Hadži Nenad M. Jovanović, Chaplain of the Georgian Royal Orders in Serbia; Mr Goran Milenković, Assistant Minister for Rural Welfare—Sector for International Cooperation, European Integration and Projects—in the Government of Serbia; and Monsieur Henri Durand de Grossouvre, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Seamless Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his address, His Royal Highness congratulated His Eminence upon his forthcoming enthronement as the 56th Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral and the 41st Metropolitan to be enthroned at the Holy Throne of Saint Petar of Cetinje in Cetinje Monastery, in the old Montenegrin royal capital of Cetinje. His Royal Highness said:

“Your Holiness,

Your Eminences and Graces,

Your Royal Highnesses,

Very Reverend Fathers, ladies and gentlemen,

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

It was a great honour and an exceptional spiritual pleasure for me to be in Podgorica today and beneath the vaults of its magnificent Cathedral, which truly symbolises a part of Paradise on Earth.

I am also honoured to have been granted the grace of finding myself among the selected guests who have gathered in this sacred place for the enthronement of Your Eminence and your elevation to the Throne of Saint Petar of Cetinje and to the sublime duty of Metropolitan of your Saint Sava Metropolitanate.

This honour and joy, which universal Orthodoxy shares with the Serbian Orthodox Church, are enhanced by the opportunity to present to Your Eminence the highest decoration of the Royal House of Georgia—the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Seamless Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the rank of Grand Cross.

It is Our wish that this solemn act become one of the building stones of even closer and more fraternal relations between our peoples, who are connected by many things of which we are often unaware because our historical ties are not sufficiently known.

According to Divine Providence, the feast days of Saint Nino, Enlightener of Georgia, and Saint Sava of Serbia are celebrated on the same day, 27 January. In our understanding, this is more than a coincidence. It is also more than a coincidence that, in the biography of his father, Saint Simeon, who was born in this very city, Saint Sava recorded that Georgian monks chanted and officiated at Saint Simeon’s funeral on Mount Athos immediately after the Greeks and before the Russians, Bulgarians and Serbs themselves.

Therefore, the foundations of our fraternal relations are deep and were laid by our Holy Ancestors, obliging us, the generations of today, to improve and develop them further.

May You have many blessed years, Your Eminence, and may You always remember us in Your holy prayers!”

Metropolitan Joanikije thanked His Royal Highness for the high Royal Honour and agreed that the Serbian and Georgian peoples had developed fraternal relations throughout their history. He stressed that the Holy Mount Athos bears the strongest witness to this.

“But so do many other shrines in the Holy Land, because wherever our history and tradition are found, we meet. We celebrate the monarchy of God the Father in the Church, and every nation on Earth that has its own history holds to its own monarchy. I wish your Dynasty, which has a deep historical foundation among the Georgian people, every success, and I wish that You, Your Highness, do everything possible to preserve both the Faith and the tradition of the fraternal Georgian people.

Although we are geographically far apart, Your arrival has brought us closer. In Faith, we have always been close, as we have been in our prayers and our shared care for the whole of Orthodoxy. I express my great pleasure that You came to Montenegro today to visit us on this special occasion, the occasion of my enthronement,” His Eminence Metropolitan Joanikije said.

The event received considerable public attention in Montenegro, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with extensive coverage in electronic and print media.

Selected coverage: