Vranje, Serbia, March 25, 2026
Photo: spc.rs
“No one, by anything—and least of all by force and bombs—can convince us to abandon peace as a way of life,” His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia declared at a memorial service in Vranje on March 24, 2026, marking the 27th anniversary of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
The service was held before a monument to the victims of the NATO aggression at the National Museum Gallery in Vranje, in the presence of Serbian President Vučić, Republika Srpska President Dodik, members of the government, and fellow hierarchs, reports the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The Patriarch opened his address by acknowledging the difficulty of finding adequate words for such an occasion: “However carefully we choose our words and search for meaning in what we intend to say, we’re left with a profound sense of helplessness to express both the depth of the tragedy we experienced and that toward which we, as God-like creatures and the people of God, must strive.”
He recalled that the bombing transformed Serbia into what he described as “a terrible killing ground, frightening ruins, rubble and ashes” for 78 days, from March 24 to June 10, 1999. Among those killed in the Vranje area were two girls—Irena Mitić, 12, and Milica Stojanović, 15. The Patriarch noted with particular anguish that the bomb that killed Irena while she was helping her uncle sow corn bore the handwritten inscription: “Bad times—isn’t that wonderful?”
“This murder, along with the message filled with morbid cynicism, unambiguously reveals much about the root and nature of the war waged against our freedom-loving Serbian people,” he said.
Pat. Porfirije framed the commemoration not as an occasion for bitterness or hatred, but as a call to conscience—and ultimately as a spiritual appeal. He noted that for Christians, the Way of the Cross is always the prelude to resurrection, and that even this sorrowful remembrance carries within it the hope of Paschal joy.
He appealed to the world to cease all bloodshed and hostilities and stressed that lasting peace can’t be achieved by human effort alone. “We know that peace can’t enter the world exclusively through our own, human strength, although that too is necessary—for this gift we also need the help of the One Who is the King of Peace and Who alone can and will grant us true peace, which surpasses all understanding.”
The Patriarch pointed to the daily prayers of the Church as a living expression of this longing, noting that at every divine service the faithful pray repeatedly for Heavenly peace, for the peace of the whole world, for peaceful times, and for mercy, life, and peace. He also invoked the legacy of St. Sava and the commandment of Christ to love God with all one’s heart and one’s neighbor as oneself.
“No one, by anything—and least of all by force and bombs—can convince us to abandon peace as a way of life,” he concluded. “May the Lord grant rest and eternal life to all who perished in the NATO bombing of 1999. Memory eternal.”
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