Patriarch of Serbia pleases over 1000 children with gifts for Christmas

Serbian Patriarch Porfirije pleased more than 1,000 children with Christmas presents, reports the official website of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

At the St. Sava Church in Vračar, Belgrade, the Patriarch gave out more than 1,000 Christmas gifts to children from large families, children with special needs and kids left without parents. The meeting with the Primate was organized by the Religious Charity Care of the Archdiocese of Belgrade and Karlovac. This is the fifth year in a row that such events have taken place.

The bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Minister of Labour and Social Policy and benefactors also came to congratulate the little ones.

According to the website “Sputnik Serbia”, never before have so many children gathered in the main temple of Belgrade. Patriarch Porfirije told them about his childhood and conveyed a Christmas message to their parents.

"The family is certainly sacred, and what holds both it and the entire human race together are children, and the most important thing that the family carries is love. So, parents, try to give your children love, above all the love between mum and dad. When you love each other, children are the happiest in the world, when you fight, children are sad," the resource cites the Primate.

One of the girls, who made her way through the fences to receive a bag of sweets and books from the hands of Patriarch Porfirije himself, became the heroine of the Serbian media report.

As previously reported, the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, made a Christmas message.