Consecration of Archimandrite Damaskin for Bishop of Mohacs

At the regular spring session, held in Belgrade from May 24 to 29, 2021, the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church elected Archimandrite Damaskin (Grabez), superior of the monastery of St. Roman in Djunis, the vicar of the Bishop of Backa, with the title Bishop of Mohacs.

The consecration of the elected Bishop of Mohacs will be performed on Sunday, September 19, 2021, in the Cathedral of St. Sava in Belgrade, starting at 9 am, during t the Holy Hierarchical Liturgy, which will be served by His Holiness Porfirije, Serbian Patriarch with archbishops and clergy. The previous day, on Saturday, September 18, a solemn evening service will be held with the rite of the proclamation of the elected Bishop, in the old Cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael in Belgrade, starting at 6 pm.

Biography of the newly elected Bishop of Mohács, Archimandrite Damaskin

Archimandrite Damaskin (secular Dragan Grabez) was born on August 15, 1975, in Drvar, to father Vlajko, a priest, and mother Dragica. He finished elementary school and high school in his hometown. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the same time at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics of the University of Belgrade and at the Faculty of Theology. He graduated from the Faculty of Theology of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade in 2001. He was a professor and educator at the Theological Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Nis from 2002 to 2011, with a break due to training.

He was tonsured on December 21, 2006 in the church of the Hilandar monastery at the seminary, receiving the monastic name Damaskin from the then Bishop Irinej of Nis  (later Serbian Patriarch), who ordained him to the rank of hierodeacon and then hieromonk in the church of the Holy Archangels. He appointed him a priest in the monastery of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God in Djunis.

From 2008 to 2010 he studied at the Theological Academy in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where in 2010 he defended his dissertation on The influence of Russian monasticism of the first wave of emigration on the spiritual life in Serbia in the 20s and 30s of the XX century, winning third prize in the group of best candidate dissertations that year. In the school year 2011/2012 he lived in Thessaloniki, Aristotle University, where he studied Greek and prepared for his doctoral studies. With the blessing of the then Bishop of Nis, Jovan, on August 4, 2012, he was appointed superior of the monastery of St. Roman in Đunis, receiving the rank of synchellos, and in 2013 the rank of protosynchellos. On the feast of St. Roman, the Patron Saint-day of the monastery, in 2018, the Bishop Arsenije of Nis ordained him into the rank of archimandrite and abbot of the Holy Roman monastery.

At the regular session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, held from May 24 to 29, 2021, he was elected Vicar of the Bishop of Backa with the title of Bishop of Mohacs.

Source: Diocese of Backa