The leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Patriarch Irinej, died at a military hospital in Belgrade early on Friday morning, the SPC said in a statement.

Before the SPC press release, Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, broke the news on his Instagram account.

SPC added that details about the funeral arrangements would be announced ‘soon.’

Irinej was born Miroslav Gavrilovic in 1930 near the western Serbian city of Cacak. He was elected the 45th Patriarch – the leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, in January 2010. Before that, he was head of the Eparchy of Niš for 35 years, from 1975 to 2010.

Irinej was hospitalised on November 4 after testing positive for Covid-19 and displaying symptoms of the disease. On Thursday, doctors treating him reported that his health had severely deteriorated.

The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches in the world, with an estimated 8 million adherents, mainly ethnic Serbs living in former Yugoslav countries and worldwide, including some 85 percent of the population of Serbia and 31 percent of Bosnia and Herzegovina.