Ras and Prizren (the eparchy which includes all of Kosovo) in 1957. He held that position for 33 years before he was elected Patriarch. As a religious leader As a bishop of Ras and Prizren Pavle built numerous new churches and helped the reconstruction of old ones. He spent a lot of time in traveling and meeting with people of his eparchy. He also wrote books and gave lectures in Church music and Church Slavonic language. Yugoslav Wars After spending 34 years in Kosovo, Pavle was elected the Serbian Patriarch in 1990, succeeding the ill Serbian Patriarch German, and moved to Belgrade. He was ordained for the Patriarch in the St. Michael's Cathedral in Belgrade on 2 December 1990, and in Patriarchal Monastery of Peć, the ancient seat of the Serbian Church, on 22 May 1994. Six days after his election, the parliamentary election was held in Serbia, in which Slobodan Milošević's SPS came to power. At first, relations between the government and the church were good, but gradually eroded because of the Yugoslav Wars and ongoing crisis in Serbia. Pavle had connections to the Karić family and had numerous meetings with Milošević and Mira Marković, but also with the leaders of the opposition. In 1993 Pavle wrote a letter to Milošević urging him to release Vuk Drašković from prison. During the Yugoslav Wars, the patriarch and the church gave support to the leaders of the Bosnian Serbs (Republika Srpska) and Croatian Serbs (Republic of Srpska Krajina). Patriarch Pavle had been heavily criticized for his actions during the wars. The Orthodox church has been viewed as promoters of Serbian nationalism by many Bosnian Muslims and Croats. Pavle visited the cities of Knin, Pale while Serbian troops carried out a siege on Goražde. Pavle met with Serb paramilitary leader, Arkan, who he claimed was justified in his actions and presented him with an autographed icon of Saint Nicholas; Arkan considered himself a favorite of Pavle and regarded the patriarch as his "commander", stating that "we are fighting for our religion, the Serbian Orthodox Church." On 13 December 1991, Pavle wrote a letter which circulated to all Orthodox churches urging for the protection of Croatian Serbs from "the Croatian neo-fascist regime - the successor of the Ustašas who massacred 700,000 Orthodox Serbs in World War II." He openly referred to the Republic of Croatia as the "new Independent State of Croatia" and