Thousands Honor Serbian Patriarch

Crowds queued before dawn to pay their final respects to Serbian Patriarch Pavle, who died on Sunday aged 95.

Pavle was enthroned in December 1990, just before the violent collapse of Yugoslavia.

Many credited him with defending the Serb minority in Kosovo and with reviving the faith after decades of communist rule.

As daylight came, close to half-a-million people attended the memorial service in and around the St. Sava church in central Belgrade.

Mourners also lined the streets along the 11 kilometer stretch to Pavle's final resting place.

Many said they had mixed feelings.

[Milena Radosavljevic]:
"I feel joyful and sad, I am sad that he died, I am proud that we had such a Patriarch."

[Filip Stajic]:
"The best thing is for me to be silent, because what I feel cannot be expressed by words, it's much more than what man can say in words to express pain and grief. I am proud that I lived in his time, and sad because he died."

Most of Serbia's seven million people are of Orthodox heritage.

Religious leaders from various countries, as well as an envoy of the Pope attended the funeral.

Pavle was criticised for failing to contain hardline bishops and priests who stoked Serb nationalism during the Yugoslavia war.

But his death could now pave the way for a younger, more moderate leader, although many in the church still take a hard line on Kosovo.

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