Life
Saint Makarios Sokolović, Patriarch of Peć, lived in the sixteenth century and his name is inseparably bound to one of the most significant events in the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church: the restoration of the Patriarchate of Peć in 1557, after almost a hundred and twenty years of subordination to the Archbishopric of Ohrid.
Makarios was the nephew of Mehmed Paša Sokolović, one of the most powerful grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, who was himself of Serbian origin — taken as a boy from Bosnia to the Janissary school and elevated to the summit of Ottoman authority. Mehmed Paša, even in his high court office, preserved a sense of his origin and watched events in the Serbian lands with particular attention. It was he who, using his position at the Ottoman court, obtained the imperial edict by which Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent in 1557 permitted the restoration of the Patriarchate of Peć.
Makarios was elected the first patriarch of the restored see and held that office until 1574. His patriarchal seat, the monastery of the Patriarchate of Peć, once again became the center of Serbian ecclesiastical and spiritual life. With untiring energy Makarios visited the dioceses, ordained hierarchs, cared for the clergy and the monasteries, and invested in the renewal of ecclesiastical property and sacred buildings that had been neglected for decades.
Under Makarios’s governance and with the support of the Sokolović family, the renewal of monastic building activity began intensively in the Serbian lands. Monasteries that had been damaged or neglected were restored and adorned; manuscript activity continued; and the printing of church books, which earlier Serbian rulers had initiated, now gained new momentum. The Church once again became the mainstay of the collective identity of the Serbian people scattered across the expanses of the Ottoman Empire.
Makarios’s personality was spiritual as much as ecclesiastically-political. Tradition describes him as a man of deep prayer and pastoral tenderness toward the faithful. He did not use his patriarchal authority for personal interests but for the good of the Church and the people. Grateful to God for the grace of restoration, he endeavored to carry it out in the spiritual-liturgical life as well — in the proper performance of worship, in the education of the clergy, and in the cultivation of monasticism.
He reposed in 1574. The Serbian Orthodox Church honors him as a saint, and his memory is kept on September 30 by the Julian calendar. The significance of Saint Makarios is recognized not only in the historical role of restoring ecclesiastical autonomy, but in the fact that in the most difficult times of Ottoman captivity he preserved the spiritual continuity of the Serbian people with the tradition of the holy Nemanjić dynasty.
Tropar (Tone 4)
Patriarch of the Serbian Church by God’s Providence, O holy Makarios, having restored the Patriarchate of Peć, thou didst strengthen thy people in the faith. Fervent shepherd and intercessor, intercede with Christ God to save our souls.
Kontakion (Tone 5)
God glorified the Sokolović lineage through thee, O hierarch Makarios; for not for earthly glory but for the Church and the Serbian people didst thou live. Having renewed the throne of Peć, be thou counted worthy of the heavenly throne — intercede for us sinners.