Academician Milorad Ekmecic and architect Mirko Kovacevic awarded with the order of St. Sava

Today at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade, His Holiness Irinej, Serbian Patriarch awareded academician Milorad Ekmecic and architect Mirko Kovacevic. The celebration was attended by members of the Holy Synod of Bishops - Their Graces Bishops: Vasilije of Srem, Irinej of Backa, Jovan of Sumadija, as well as Their Graces Bishops Pahomije of Vranje, Grigorije of Zahumlje-Herzegovina, Teodosije of Raska-Prizren, David of Krusevac and vicar Atanasije of Hvosno and vicar Jovan of Lipljan.

Serbian Patriarch Irinej on the occasion of the solemn award ceremony pointed out merits of academician Ekmecic and architect Kovacevic, who enhanced their deeds with the Serbian history for eternity. Academician Milorad Ekmecic thanked Patriarch and Bishop Grigorije, on which suggestion he got the order,  for the given honor and emphasized the St. Sava`s ethos of the Serbian people. At the end Mr. Kovacevic thanked the brotherhood of the monastery Hilandar.

Milorad Ekmecic (Prebilovci, SCS Kingdom, October 4, 1928) is the Serbian historian, doctor of the history and academician, and the member of the Senate of the Republic of Srpska. He was born in Prebilovci, the municipality of Capljina, on October 4, 1928, by father Ilija and mother Kristina. He finished the primary school in Capljina, and the grammar school in Mostar in 1947. He spent the war until 1943 in Caplina, and later in Prebilovci, the free territory. From October 1947 until July 1945 je was in the People's Liberation Army. He went to the Zagreb University, where he graduated in 1952. He was chosen as the assistant at the newly-opened Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. ј

Ph.D. thesis "Uprising in Bosnia from 1875-1878" he defended at the Zagren University in 1958. After the specialization in Prinston (USA) of a year, he continued the work at the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo until the beginning of the civil war in 1992.

In May 1992 he was arrested by the moslem "Green berets" along with his family, and he was released in the house arrest. From there he managed to escape onto the territory of the Republic of Srpska. After that from September 1992 until he retired in October 1994 he was regular professor of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade.

The chef of the team which renovates the Hilandar monastery is professor Dr Mirko Kovacevic, architect who is now far in the eight decade of his life, but the professional whithout whom this sacred place could hardly reconstruct faithfully.