Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo I

Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo I Српски патријарх Гаврило I
Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch
Church	Serbian Orthodox Church
See	Patriarchal Monastery of Peć
Installed	1648
Term ended	1655
Predecessor	Pajsije I
Successor	Maksim I
Personal details
Birth name	Gavrilo Rajić
Died	1659
Nationality	Rum Millet (Serbian)
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox Christian
Occupation	Spiritual leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Gavrilo I Rajić (died 1659) was Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch between 1648 and 1655. He was murdered by Turks and therefore celebrated by Eastern Orthodox Church as Hieromartyr. His feast day is celebrated on December 13.

Gavrilo was born around 1605-1610 in the region of Stari Vlah into a noble Rajić family. He entered into the church service and became Metropolitan of Smederevo. In 1643, he was elected Metropolitan of Raška. Around 1644, He rebuilt the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in the Kovilje Mountains. After the death of Serbian Patriarch Pajsije on November 3/13 1647, Gavrilo was elected new patriarch in 1648.

In 1653, he decided to travel to Russia to ask for material support for Serbian Patriarchate. After meeting with Metropolitan Arsenije of Herzegovina on Christmas Eve, he went first to Wallachia and arrived in Trgovište where he tried to reconcile the Wallachian Prince Matei Basarab with the Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. From there, Patriarch Gavrilo traveled to Russia in 1654, taking with him two books for printing: Lives of Serbian Emperors and Patriarchs and Typikon against Latin Heresy of Saint Nil Kabasilas. He was welcomed by Russian Patriarch Nikon and Russian Tsar Michael Romanov. He also participated in the famous Moscow Synod in 1658 which approved Nikon's reforms. Since he decided to stay in Russia, he wrote to Serbian metropolitans to elect a new patriarch.

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