His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilochios (Risto) Radovic was born on Christmas Day, 25th December 1937 (7th of January 1938) in the village called Bare in Moraca, Montenegro. He is a direct descendant of the Duke Mina Radovic who was a prominent member of the First Montenegrin State Senate founded originally by the prince and metropolitan of Montenegro St. Peter I of Cetinje. He attends St. Sava's Theological Seminary in Belgrade and after finishing it begins his studies in 1958 at the Theological Faculty of The Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. In 1962 he receives a graduate degree in Theology. Along with theological studies he also studied Classical Philology at the University of Belgrade.

In 1963 he decided to continue his postgraduate studies first at the University of Bern and then at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. From there he moved to Athens, received a monastic tonsure in 1966, and little later became a priest and an archimandrite. Along with his daily ministry in an orthodox parish in Athens he managed to finish work on a doctorate thesis titled "The Mystery of the Holy Trinity in the Theology of St. Gregory Palamas" at the Theological Faculty of the University of Athens.

Throughout the year 1973 he stayed at Mount Athos. While he was still living on the Holy Mountain archimandrite Amphilochios received a call to start teaching at St. Sergius's Russian Theological Academy in Paris where he taught from 1974 to 1976.

After returning to Belgrade he started teaching at the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade and in early eighties became the dean of this Faculty. It was in the early eighties when he did very important missionary work at Belgrade University organizing open general public discussions about Orthodox Christianity and inviting many leading artists, intellectuals and political dissidents to take part in these discussions as his guests.

In 1985 archimandrite Amphilochios was elected a bishop of Banat in Vrsac. He worked enthusiastically to restore the life of the Orthodox Church and his time in this diocese will be remembered as the time of dynamism and change, the time when Orthodox Church started coming out of isolation into the forefront of the social life.

In 1991 bishop Amphilochios was elected a metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral. His appointment coincided with the gradual deconstruction of the old communist regime and all this brought about the first free democratic elections. Orthodox Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral quickly started to flourish. The number of priests, monks and nuns as well as the number of the faithful increased rapidly. The same can be said for many monasteries and parish churches that were rebuilt and brought back to their former glory. From only 10 active monasteries with about 20 monks and nuns in 1991, Montenegro now has over 30 active monasteries with more than 160 monks and nuns living and praying in them. The number of parish priests was also increased from less than 20 in 1991, to more than 80 in 2002. The Orthodox Seminary bearing the name of St. Peter of Cetinje was fully restored in 1993.

Metropolitanate of Montenegro and Littoral : English index

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