BELGRADE: Half a million people from Serbia and neighbouring countries attended the funeral yesterday of Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle, who presided over the revival of the faith after decades of communist rule.

Pavle’s departure could pave the way for a more moderate leader, although many bishops take a hard line on Kosovo, the cradle of their medieval Orthodox Christianity which declared independence last year. Pavle died at the age 95 on Sunday.

Serbian police estimated at least 500,000 people lined the streets and main church along the 11km route to the final resting place in Belgrade’s suburban Rakovica monastery.

Bishops and top clergy in ornate white robes led the funeral procession. Serbian army guard in ceremonial blue uniforms flanked the hearse carrying Pavle’s body in an open casket, covered by a gold-embroidered green cloth.

Some schools and offices were closed in both Serbia and in neighbouring Bosnia’s Serb Republic.

Most of Serbia’s seven million people are of Orthodox heritage, and the church, which casts an important influence over Serbian society and tradition, has large dioceses abroad.

Several bishops are vying to replace Pavle, including Amfilohije, who vehemently opposes any softening of Belgrade’s position that Kosovo remains part of Serbia.

More relatively moderate bishops, including Irinej from northern Serbia or Grigorije from neighbouring Bosnia, are also in contention.

“As the country is now progressing towards Europe, we now need a Patriarch who will ... lead us to that new world,” said Jovan, 37, a monk from Serbia’s south.

Born in 1914 into the Austro-Hungarian empire in what is today Croatia, Pavle lived through the end of that empire and the creation and eventual collapse of Yugoslavia. Critics say during the bloody end of Yugoslavia in the 1990s Pavle failed to contain hardline bishops and priests who stoked Serb nationalism and publicly blessed paramilitaries who committed war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.