Metropolitan Irinej of Bačka
Administrator of the Diocese of Austria
The Diocese of Austria is governed, as administrator, by His Eminence the Metropolitan of Bačka, Dr. Irinej – a bishop, theologian, and longtime professor of the New Testament.
„Faith is not preserved by walls, but by a heart that remembers. Wherever we are, we carry the Church with us – in prayer, in language, in love for our neighbor.”
Metropolitan Irinej of BačkaLife and ministry
The Metropolitan of Bačka, Dr. Irinej, was born on 11 February 1947 to his father Mihailo and his mother Zorka Bulović in Stanišić, in the Bačka region, receiving at baptism the name Mirko. He completed primary school in his native place and the gymnasium in Sombor in 1965. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade in 1969.
During his studies he received the monastic tonsure from his spiritual father, the late Archimandrite Justin Popović, taking the monastic name Irinej. That same year, Bishop Pavle of Raška and Prizren (the future Serbian Patriarch) ordained him a hierodeacon and then a hieromonk.
He spent nearly two years at the Monastery of Ostrog (1969–1970), teaching at the monastery's Monastic School. He spent the decade from 1970 to 1980 in Athens pursuing postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Athens, where, in June 1980, he defended his doctoral dissertation.
After a brief period of study in Paris at the Russian Saint Sergius Theological Institute (1980–1981), he was elected assistant professor at the Chair of the Holy Scripture of the New Testament at the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade, where he subsequently held the same chair for many years with the rank of full professor.
At the regular session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1989, he was elected Bishop of Moravica, vicar to the Serbian Patriarch. Following his consecration at the Patriarchate of Peć on 20 May 1990, he was elected Bishop of Bačka and was enthroned in Novi Sad on 23 December of the same year.
He has published many theological texts, both scholarly and popular, as well as numerous translations. For about a decade he edited the Православни мисионар (Orthodox Missionary), a popular journal published by the Holy Synod. He is a member of the Translation Commission of the Holy Synod, of several pan-Orthodox dialogue commissions, and of the Council of Religious Leaders of Europe "Religions for Peace".
He has taken part in many national and international theological and scholarly gatherings and conferences, in spiritual forums, and in inter-Christian encounters and dialogues, as well as in encounters and dialogues with Jewish and Islamic communities, institutions, and organizations.