Bishop Lukijan of Osijek-Polje and Baranja reposed in the Lord

Bishop Lukijan of Osijek-Polje and  Baranja fell asleep in the Lord in the afternoon of 24 May 2017 at the Clinical Hospital Center in Osijek, Croatia.

Bishop Lucian (Vladulov) was born on 9 May 1933 in Heifeldt (today's New Kolarci in Banat). He finished the Theological Seminary in Sremski Karlovici as well as the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade.

He received monastic vows in the monastery Kovilj (Vachka) in 1958, was ordained as hierodeacon in 1959,  and hieromonk in 1963.

Since his arrival to the monastery Kovilj this shrine was generally restored. Appreciating the activity of Revd. Lucian, the then Bishop of Backa Nikanor transferred him to monastery Bodjani in February 1964. Monastery Bodjani had been impoverished and neglected in every way. During his administration many activities towards a further development of the shrine have been initiated. In parallel with the creation of one of the most prominent of the monasteries of our Holy Church at that time, Revd. Lukijan erected a very beautiful church dedicated to St. Basil of Ostrog the Miracle Worker in the nearby village of Vajska, which was a monastery parish.

Appreciating his decades-long exemplary work in the vineyard of the Lord, the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church elected on 23 May 1991 archimandrite Lukijan as Diocesan  Bishop of the reestablished Diocese of Osijek-Polje and Baranja. Consecration took place on 14 July 1991 at the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas in Karlovci. Bishop Lukijan was enthroned in the Cathedral Church of St. Demetrius in Dalj (Slavonia), on 18 August 1991. His consecration and enthronement were performed by the then Serbian Patriarch Pavle with participation of several Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Bishop Lukijan took the reestablished Diocese of Osijek-Polje and Baranja in time of the civil war. The late Bishop played an enormous role in the healing of wounds of all kinds in the difficult postwar period.

Source: Diocese of Osijek-Polje and Baranja