The Serbian Orthodox Church awarded radical Seselj again – after Filaret and Amfilohi, the order was also awarded by Irinej

The New Gracanica-Midwestern American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church awarded the Order of Saint Bishop Mardari to radical leader Vojislav Sesel, the Serbian Radical Party announced.

This is not the first award for Seselj that comes from a diocese – in 2015, he received the Order of the White Angel of the first order, which was awarded to him by the then bishop of Mileseva, Filaret, who was dismissed the same year. He also received the Order of the Golden Image of Saint Peter the Second Secret Seer of Lovcen, which was awarded to him by the late Metropolitan Amfilohije, also in 2015.

The high ecclesiastical order was awarded to Seselj on behalf of Bishop Longin by Bishop Irinej of Backa, who, as stated in the announcement, said on that occasion that “it was a part of the honor and a pleasant duty to give this wonderful order, made in the name of one wonderful God’s pleasing, saint, our almost contemporary, Holy Brother Mardari”.

Seseljsaid that it was a great pleasure and honor for him to receive this high church award “as unworthy”, the statement added.

The radical leader added that when he once stayed in America, Canada and Australia, he found Serbs there “divided, fighting to the point of blood and knife”.

“I tried, in every place where I stayed, to overcome that schism, to reunite the church, and I was quite successful.” For the first time, they came to each other’s church homes, churches, monasteries, and then the arrival of Patriarch Pavle at the head of the Serbian Church opened the way for this to really be achieved,” Seseljsaid.

Let us remind you that Vojislav Seseljwas sentenced to ten years in prison by the final judgment of the Hague Tribunal from 2018 for inciting the persecution, deportation and forced displacement and relocation of Croats in the Vojvodina village of Hrtkovci in 1992.

In 2015, the late Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral awarded Seselj the high Order of the golden image of Saint Peter the Second of Lovcen, the Secret Seer, in the Ceremonial Hall of the “Ostrog” Cardiovascular Hospital in Belgrade, SRS announced at the time.

The order was awarded to Seselj, as stated in the explanation of the Charter, “for Kosovo’s wrestling and service to the Holy Law of God’s Justice in defense of the “justice” of the Hague Tribunal, whose traces reek of inhumanity,” RTCG reported at the time.

Let us remind you that in 2015, Bishop Filaret of Mileseva, in the Mileseva monastery, the same one where the famous work of art is located – the White Angel fresco, delivered the order of “White Angel of the First Order” to Vojislav Seselj. Filaret, as RSE reported at the time, said during the awarding of the Order of the White Angel that it was done as a sign of gratitude for Seselj’s defense of Serbia.

On Saint Sava’s Day, January 27, during the presentation of the order, as RSE reported at the time, it was stated:

“The Board of Directors of the Eparchy of Milesevo awards Professor Dr. Sesel, the Chetnik Duke, the winner of the Hague Tribunal, the high honor of the Eparchy of Milesevo, the Order of the White Angel of the first degree.”

Bishop Filaret added to this official explanation: “Dear friend, brother Vojo, God has given you to wash away the stain from the Serbian people, as much as you could, of course it was difficult, but we followed You and we congratulate You on your brave fight, the Serbian fight , heroic struggle”.

As RSE wrote, Vojislav Seselj drew the new border of Greater Serbia on that occasion: “Northern Albania up to the city of Durrës will one day have to be Serbian again.”

In the text about that award, it is stated that Bishop Filaret has always been close to Seselj, and that “dressed in priest’s uniform, in the 90s he called for war with a machine gun in his arms.”