Serbian Orthodox Church

Monastic tonsures at Gethsemane Convent

During the holy days of the Dormition Fast, three novices of Jerusalem's Gethsemane Convent of St Mary Magdalene took their first steps of monasticism and were tonsured into the riassa. After all-night vigil on Saturday evening, August 22, 2020, the Chief of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky) tonsured novices Latina Stamenkova, Marina Smirnova and Olga Tulyakova. As is traditional, the newly-tonsured sisters received new monastic names.

Metrolitan Porfirije: Let us crucify our logic with Christ

On the eleventh week after Pentecost, 10/23. August 2020, His Eminence Porfirije, Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Zagreb Cathedral of the Transfiguration.

-The Gospel is the word of God addressed to each of us individually. It tells us what is in accordance with our purpose. Every time we act contrary to the words of the Gospel, we act contrary to ourselves. The Gospel should not be used to exalt ourselves or to judge and judge others. Like the servant in the today’s Gospel reading, we forget the good deeds of others that have been done to us, and consequently, we ourselves are often ruthless towards others. We have framed others in pictures of our imagined demands and expect them to be flawless righteous, the Metropolitan said.

Memorial service for the victims of the Ustashas raid in 1942

Every year, on the eve of the feast of Dormition of the Mother of God, the clergy with the faithful of the church of the Holy Father Nicholas in Shid remember prayerfully the martyred fellow citizens in the raid of 1942 carried out by Croatian Ustashas together with German forces in the then occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

In addition to the family members of the great Serbian painter Sava Sumanovic, numerous prominent families disappeared in Sid during the raid: the Maukovics, the Tubics, the Mirkovics, the Grcics, the Plejas, the Kojickis, the Piromanskis ... May the Merciful Lord grant them the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal remembrance. Amen.

Great Dormition gathering in Sarengrad

- We often go left and right, we go the way of sin, the way of worldly troubles and anxieties, which burden us. We must always return to the Lord, through tears, through repentance, through prayer and fasting. Thus, the work we are doing here on earth will have a hundredfold fruit and will be counted among the goods that will be collected, which will be seen, in order to achieve that fullness of reality in the Kingdom of Heaven, Diocesan Bishop Heruvim said in his sermon.

On the Saturday and Sunday, August 22 and 23, 2020, a great Dormition gathering was marked in the church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Sarengrad. On the eve of the gathering, priests of the deanery of Vukovar served a solemn evening service and acathist to the Most Holy Mother of God in front of the Miraculous Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God of Sarengrad.

Serbian Patriarch Irinej and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic visited the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava to see the progress of interior works

On 20th August 2020, His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej and the President of the Republic of Serbia, Mr Aleksandar Vucic, visited the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava in order to get informed of the progress of works on Cathedral interior.

The works on the interior of the Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava should be completed in October, when the Cathedral is planned to be opened as a part of a great jubilee – 800 years of autocephaly of the Serbian Orthodox Church. President Vucic pointed out that he was proud of the fact that the Serbian government had undertaken the greatest burden of the completion of construction of the St. Sava’s Cathedral, adding that the investments into the Cathedral works in the last three years exceeded the total sum invested during the previous 60 years.

“All of our great accomplishments are left to the next generations. This period will be remembered not only for the great investment in roads, railways and other infrastructure facilities, but also for the completion of the most important religious and cultural facility. This will be the new Hagia Sophia. We do not have the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia anymore, but we do have the Cathedral of St. Sava,” President Vucic pointed out and added that the church had the largest mosaic in the whole world, made of broken glass, on which the greatest Serbian and Russian artistic masters had been working.

“The Cathedral of Saint Sava is one of the three largest in the Orthodox world. We have been struggling to build our Orthodox cathedral for more than 100 years. It is an extremely important goal for all the people who respect themselves and their history, but also their future. In just two months, the works will be finished and we will be able to see the Cathedral in its wonderful beauty. It will be one of the largest and most important worship places not only for our people, but also for everyone who comes to Serbia to see something magnificent. People who have big dreams have a chance of achieving them” said President Vucic and thanked the Russian artists who had been working on decorating the dome, Russian academician Nikolai Mukhin who is the lead author and creator of the mosaic, but also the President of the Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir Putin, and Gazprom Company for donating EUR 10.5 million.

His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej emphasized that the Cathedral of Saint Sava would be a magnificent shrine to the pride of the Serbian people, and of the whole Christian world. He expressed gratitude to all of those who had donated funds for the Cathedral, but also to the Serbian State, which had understood the importance and significance of Saint Sava for our history and the importance of building the Cathedral at the exact place where St. Sava’s relics had been burnt. “As much as Stefan Nemanja contributed to the creation of the State, Saint Sava did nothing less. While Nemanja was expanding the State’s borders, St. Sava was instilling the spirit and life into our Church. Such a feeling has imbued our entire history, and is still felt today”, said the Serbian Patriarch Irinej.

Source: www.president.rs

Transfiguration of our Lord celebrated in the monastery of Lipovac

The faithful of the Diocese of Nis celebrated the Transfiguration of the Lord with their Patriarch.

On the eve of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, on August 18, 2020, His Grace Arsenije, Bishop of Nis, together with archimandrite Dionisije, Abbess Melania, the sisterhood and numerous priests and faithful people of the Diocese of Nis, welcomed His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Irinej in the monastery of St. Stephen at Lipovac.