**Tens of thousands of people have lined the streets of Belgrade for the funeral of the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle.**The patriarch, 95, who became leader of the Church in 1990, died on Sunday.
The open coffin is being taken in silence through the streets from Saborna church to the main Orthodox St Sava cathedral.
Later on Thursday, Patriarch Pavle is to be buried at Rakovica monastery in a Belgrade suburb, as he had requested.
The patriarch was admitted to the city’s military hospital two years ago and had reportedly suffered from heart and lung conditions.
Church influence
Most of Serbia’s population of seven million people are Orthodox Christians.
Patriarch Pavle, a respected theologian and linguist, was known for personal humility and modesty.
His 19 years as Serbian Orthodox leader saw the demise of communism and an increase in Serb nationalism, during which the Church became more influential.
At the beginning of the Balkan wars that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, Pavle said - according to Serbian state television: “It is our oath not to make a single child cry or sadden a single old woman because they are of another religion or nation.”
But he was criticised by some for failing to contain hardline bishops and priests who supported Serb paramilitaries against Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims.
However, he later openly criticised Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic after he lost control of Kosovo following Nato’s intervention.
Since then, the Serbian Orthodox Church has strongly supported the Serbian government in its efforts to stop Kosovo’s independence drive.