Metodije (Marković), Abbot of Hilandar

Archimandrite Metodije (Marković) — Архимандрит Методије (Марковић), also rendered in Greek as Μεθόδιος Χιλανδαρίου — has headed Hilandar since 2010. Hilandar occupies fourth place in the traditional hierarchy of the twenty ruling monasteries of Mount Athos. His responsibilities have combined the direction of a monastic community with reconstruction after the 2004 fire and extensive contacts with Serbian religious, governmental and educational institutions. ^{[1], [2], [3]}

Series: Abbots and Hegoumens of Mount Athos — 4 of 20. Last updated: 8 November 2026.

Origins and education

Metodije was born in Čačak on 7 January 1970 and received the baptismal name Vladimir. Following secondary school and military service, he studied electrical engineering in Belgrade and attended the missionary school at the Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky. ^{[3], [5]}

He left university before completing his studies. In an interview reported by Radio Television of Vojvodina in 2019, he said that approximately one year remained when he decided to enter Hilandar. Descriptions of him as an electrical engineer should therefore be distinguished from the documented fact that he studied the subject. ^[4]

Entry into monastic life and formation

He arrived on Mount Athos in 1994. In a 2014 interview, he recalled consulting Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica beforehand and receiving his blessing to go to Athos. He also described seeking counsel from experienced Athonite abbots after assuming leadership himself. This account presents monastic formation as a continuing relationship of guidance rather than something completed at election. ^[5]

His own account, published by Hilandar in April 2019, distinguishes three stages of profession: rassophore in 1995, the small schema in 1996 and the great schema in 2005. Abbot Mojsije (Žarković), his predecessor, performed the tonsures. These distinctions explain why a single date of “becoming a monk” can obscure the chronology. ^[6]

He was ordained a hieromonk in 1997. From 1999 he served as the monastery's epitropos, with administrative responsibilities, and subsequently as Mojsije's deputy. The official biography also records his work as a confessor and, from 2003, responsibility for guiding the younger brotherhood. It names Elder Agathon as a longstanding spiritual guide. ^[3]

Election and the monastery he inherited

Hilandar's Serbian foundation dates to 1198, through Saint Sava and his father, the former ruler Stefan Nemanja, who became the monk Simeon. The monastery returned to cenobitic organization in 1990. Metodije inherited a community already organized around common life under an abbot, while major reconstruction remained in progress. ^{[1], [3]}

Following Mojsije's death, the brotherhood elected Metodije on 18 April 2010. Hilandar's contemporary account describes the election within the monastery's principal church and the presentation of the abbatial staff and Saint Sava's typikon. In that account, the objects symbolize authority exercised within an inherited rule and the monastery's rights of self-government. ^[2]

His enthronement took place on 16 May 2010, conducted by a commission of the Holy Community. In his address, he affirmed Hilandar's relationship with the Ecumenical Patriarch, whose name is commemorated in its services, and emphasized unity among the twenty monasteries. He thanked the Greek authorities and the Centre for the Preservation of Athonite Heritage for assistance with reconstruction. ^[7]

Reconstruction and administration

The fire of March 2004 devastated a substantial part of Hilandar. Metodije was assigned to direct its reconstruction before becoming abbot. He also chairs the governing board of the Foundation of the Holy Monastery of Hilandar, established in Serbia in 2003 to support charitable work and the monastery's heritage. ^[3]

The rebuilding has extended well beyond initial expectations. Hilandar's January 2023 account of President Aleksandar Vučić's visit anticipated completion of the burned section by mid-2024. In July 2025, the Serbian government described the fire-damaged buildings as almost entirely restored, while identifying remaining craft and artistic work in the chapels of Saint Sava and Saint Demetrius. That report also described earthquake activity affecting the conditions under which work proceeded. The distinction between structural rebuilding and conservation of painted interiors matters when assessing announcements of completion. ^{[8], [9]}

On 18 March 2026, Serbia's Ministry of Culture announced a contract providing 138.5 million dinars for Hilandar's restoration and activities that year. The foundation's director identified the pandemic and shortages of labour among the factors that had slowed the long rebuilding programme, and described the protection of movable heritage as a further major undertaking. This is an official funding announcement and the participants' explanation of the programme; it is not an independent financial audit. ^[10]

Teaching and pastoral activity

In his 2019 interview, Metodije described Athonite monasteries learning from one another's experience. He presented the abbot's responsibilities as including both the organization of common life and personal guidance of the monks. His account places authority within daily practice: prayer, work, confession and the transmission of experience between generations. ^[6]

In a radio interview discussed by the Greek Orthodoxia News Agency in August 2024, he explained that Athonite life draws on both written rules and oral traditions. At Hilandar, Saint Sava's typikon is read at the communal meal on the first day of each month. He described inherited ideals as standards requiring continuing effort, rather than grounds for satisfaction with the community's present condition. ^[11]

Educational contacts have also extended beyond the monastery. A church-radio report records his visit to a pharmaceutical and physiotherapy school in Belgrade on 18 May 2026, when a cooperation memorandum was signed. The planned activities included study of the Hilandar Medical Codex and participation in the “Hilandar Lighthouse” educational programme. ^[12]

Ecclesiastical and monastic affairs

Metodije has publicly taken a position on the dispute over the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. In remarks given to the Union of Orthodox Journalists on 29 February 2020, published on 7 March, he stated that Hilandar followed the position of the Serbian Orthodox Church and recognized Metropolitan Onufriy, rather than the newly established Orthodox Church of Ukraine. He acknowledged disagreement between Athonite monasteries and expressed hope for a solution reached jointly by the heads of the local Orthodox churches. ^[13]

The report is valuable as a published account of his own remarks. Its descriptions of one jurisdiction as exclusively canonical belong to a news organization supporting Onufriy's church and should be distinguished from the biographical fact of Metodije's declared allegiance. His 2010 affirmation of patriarchal commemoration and his 2020 disagreement over Ukraine document distinct aspects of his ecclesiastical position. ^{[7], [13]}

Greek reporting also records his meeting with Archbishop Leonid at the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations on 21 December 2021. The report establishes the meeting and a discussion of matters of mutual interest, but supplies no detailed declaration on the Ukraine dispute. ^[14]

Relations with Serbian public life

Hilandar's own report documents Metodije receiving President Aleksandar Vučić at Christmas 2023, following a presidential visit in 2021. Their meeting concerned restoration funding, energy infrastructure, the treasury and the monastery's economy. Metodije publicly thanked the president for assistance. These contacts establish cooperation with the state and public recognition of its support. ^[8]

A Serbian defence-institution report dated 8 October 2025 records his reception of Defence Minister Bratislav Gašić and military representatives. It attributes remarks about the importance of cooperation between the military and the Church to the abbot. The minister's more expansive description of those institutions as pillars of the state is the minister's statement. ^[15]

His contacts also include academic figures critical of pressures on Serbian universities. On 16 June 2026, the University of Belgrade reported Rector Vladan Đokić's two-day visit to Hilandar. Its account states that he and Metodije discussed cooperation, Serbia's social situation and pressures facing the academic community. The university offered its scientific and professional expertise to the monastery. ^[16]

The following day, Danas, in reporting also reproduced by Nova, interpreted the encounter as an opening toward the student movement. It also described Metodije addressing students in Novi Sad. That political interpretation should be attributed to the newspaper: the university's announcement documents the discussion but does not record a declaration of party allegiance by the abbot. Read together, these sources show contacts across different parts of Serbian public life. ^{[16], [17]}

Limits of the public record

The sources cited here establish Metodije's position on Ukraine, his administration and his public relationships. They do not establish a personal declaration by him on the forcible removal of the resident Esphigmenou brotherhood, or a comprehensive personal position on the 2016 Council of Crete and inter-Christian dialogue. Hilandar's participation in Athonite institutions does not by itself supply those missing statements.

Chronology

Sources

Sources were consulted on 8 November 2026. English titles below describe the linked material. Institutional reports establish their authors' accounts; personal interviews and newspaper interpretations are identified separately.

1. Athos.Guide. Hilandar Monastery. Undated guide. English. Fourth rank, foundation and cenobitic status.
2. Hilandar Monastery. Hieromonk Metodije elected abbot. 18 April 2010. Serbian. Contemporary institutional account.
3. Hilandar Monastery. Biography of Archimandrite Metodije. Undated institutional biography. Serbian.
4. Radio Television of Vojvodina. What secrets and answers Hilandar preserves. 2019. Serbian. Reports his account of leaving university before graduation.
5. Pravoslavie.ru, Serbian edition. God does not punish but corrects and teaches: interview with Metodije. Interview on the occasion of his 2014 visit to Montenegro. Serbian.
6. Hilandar Monastery, reproducing an interview for the Russian Church's monastic department. Athos lives by Orthodox tradition. 20 April 2019. Serbian translation of a Russian interview. Personal account of profession and monastic life.
7. Hilandar Monastery. Archimandrite Metodije enthroned. 16 May 2010. Serbian.
8. Hilandar Monastery. President Aleksandar Vučić at Hilandar for Christmas. 10 January 2023. Serbian.
9. Government of Serbia. Hilandar restoration in its final phase. 22 July 2025. Serbian. Government account of progress and remaining work.
10. Serbian Ministry of Culture. Contract for financing Hilandar's restoration and activities in 2026. 18 March 2026. Serbian.
11. Orthodoxia News Agency. Metodije on Athos, monasticism and ties with Montenegro. 1 August 2024; updated 9 August. Greek account of a Svetigora radio interview.
12. Radio Slovo Ljubve. Cooperation memorandum with the pharmaceutical and physiotherapy school. Report of the visit of 18 May 2026. Serbian.
13. Union of Orthodox Journalists, Ekaterina Filatova. Hilandar's abbot: we recognize only Onufriy. 7 March 2020; remarks given on 29 February in Podgorica. Greek edition. Interview report from a publication supporting Onufriy's church.
14. Romfea. Hilandar's abbot at the Moscow Patriarchate's external-relations department. 21 December 2021. Greek.
15. University of Defence, Serbia. Minister Gašić visits Hilandar Monastery. 8 October 2025. English. Official defence-institution report.
16. University of Belgrade. Rector visits Hilandar. 16 June 2026. Serbian. University account of the meeting and its topics.
17. Danas, reproduced by Nova. “I too am a student”: Metodije following Rector Đokić's visit. 17 June 2026. Serbian. Newspaper profile and political interpretation; the Nova version credits Danas and is not independent corroboration.