The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Pavle has died. He was 95.

Pavle, who has led the church since 1990, has been hospitalized for months. He had heart and lung problems. The church said he died Sunday morning.

A respected theologian and linguist also known for personal humility and modesty, Pavle took over the church leadership just as the collapse of communism ended years of state policy of repressing religion.

He had headed the church during the turbulent years of the Balkan wars in the 1990s and the collapse of former President Slobodan Milosevic's regime in 2000.