Serbian Patriarch on Operation Storm victims: We must remember but not hate

Patriarch Porfirije at the Day of Remembrance ceremony for Serbs killed and expelled, held in Mrkonjić Grad. Photo: Serbian Orthodox Church

Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia called on the faithful to preserve the prayerful memory of the victims of the military operation known as Operation Storm, while allowing neither hatred nor revenge to take root in their hearts. The Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church delivered his address on August 4, 2026, during a commemorative event in Mrkonjić Grad, UOJ Serbia reports.

The head of the Serbian Church prayed for the eternal repose of all the brothers and sisters who innocently suffered during the events of August 1995. He stressed that prayer is the deepest and most worthy form of remembrance – one that not only preserves the truth, but also frees a person from evil.

According to him, year after year Serbs gather in different places to “prayerfully commemorate those who suffered innocently during the terrible expulsion of our people from their ancestral homes.” The Patriarch made particular mention of the tragedy on the Petrovac road, where elderly people, women, and children were killed in refugee columns.

“Prayer before the face of God lifts up both the victim’s pain and the wound of the one who remembers,” the Primate said.

The Patriarch also warned against internal divisions, urging the people not to allow mutual hatred to become a way of life. He emphasized that only through love for their own people can Serbs become capable of respecting and loving others.

“By remembering our sufferers and our homeland, we remember who we are, whose we are, and to whom we belong. And we belong to Christ, to His Church, to one another, and to the Orthodox Serbian people,” Patriarch Porfirije stressed.

In conclusion, the Patriarch called on the faithful to pursue reconciliation and good-neighborly relations with all the peoples with whom they share their living space. He recalled the words of the late Patriarch Pavle that “hatred must give way to love, and unrest to peace.”

The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church once again prayed for the eternal repose of all the brothers and sisters who innocently suffered during the events of August 1995.

As the UOJ previously reported, Patriarch Porfirije called the Serbs killed in 1992–1995 “martyrs.”

Read also