Information Service of
the Serbian Orthodox Church
March 15, 2004

CHILANDAR MONASTERY:
FLAMES THAT ENGULFED OUR HEARTS

(Belgrade) – The reaction was universal as the greatest of Serbian Orthodox holy shrines, Chilandar Monastery on Holy Mt. Athos, Chalkidiki Peninsula, Greece, was engulfed by catastrophic fire just after midnight on Wednesday, 3 March 2004. The fire destroyed more than one half of the monastery complex. Flames devoured three chapels total, including the medieval chapel next to the St. Sava Tower with its iconostasis and frescoes from the 17th and 18th centuries; a part of the residence hall built in 1821; and the restored White Dormitory, built in 1598. In short, the entire epoch of the 16-18^th centuries, largely restored in the 20^th century, together with current documentation, is gone forever. Gratefully, there were no casualties or injuries among the monks, and the catholicon (main church), treasury, library and archives remain in tact.

I, as every Serbian child, grew up listening to lore of that marvelous and distant Chilandar Monastery on Mount Athos, established by St. Sava, whose well continues to quench thirsty bodies and parched souls and by St. Simeon, from whose crypt grows that miraculous grape vine. It therefore comes as no surprise that every individual Serb and all Orthodox Christians experienced the tragic fire as deeply personal with a collective responsibility towards this first Serbian University and center of spirituality.

Beyond the allure of a young Prince Rastko knocking at Chilandar’s doors in the depths of the midnight hour, now in a midnight pitch a fire pierced the hollow of the night, wiping out the physical existence of that very same entrance. Who could not react to this devastation? No one, not even the ardent atheistic heart could bear the pain without heaving an agonized sigh. Even the stone foundations cried from under the weight of their burden, let alone a heart of stone. As we helplessly witnessed a roaring inferno destroying centuries of our priceless history and our very being, that comforting light which emanated from a tender Rastko’s spiritual transfiguration at midnight flashed before our very eyes providing the only rays of hope, as the rays of Christ’s Holy Resurrection radiating from Golgotha.

Chilandar uniquely serves as that sole entity wherein we find the wellspring of our national and spiritual being. It is here that the Father of the Serbian Church, Sava, embraced his father, Steven Nemanja, the Father of the Serbian Nation, and a son became a father to his father, as the father became a son to his son. That tender embrace, even after centuries and recently decades of oppression, still holds us bound in eternity. A temporal fire cannot destroy the warmth and radiance of Chilandar. Therefore, it is our collective and personal obligation to heed the cry of our Holy Church and to rebuild this sacred center for future generations to come and follow Christ through the Way of Saint Sava. “Sveti Savo ti pomozi” – Saint Sava be our helper and guide!