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Manasija Monastery: A History

Page 26 of 60

Again, despite the lack not only of a more thorough study but of any study at all of the history of the Manasija monastic community - a study which, it is to be hoped, would successfully clarify the often confusing and at first glance contradictory details, and shed light on the history of this community in general - we venture, with reservations, to give a list of the names of the superiors of Manasija Monastery. For the time being, the names of several superiors of the Manasija community from that period are known to us from the literature - the hieromonk Sofronije Mihajlović (who, it is claimed, was superior of Manasija Monastery in 1919–1924),176 the abbot Sergije Janaćević (superior of the monastery in 1924),177 the hieromonk Amfilohije Bedričić (superior of the monastery in 1925–1927), the abbot Lukijan Birčanin (acting superior in 1928), the hieromonk Zosim Valjajev (acting superior in 1928–1929), the hieromonk Mojsej (acting superior in 1929)...178 In the first quarter of the 20th century Manasija went through difficult times. In the First World War the monastery suffered and was plundered; among other things, the occupying forces carried off the monastery bells, royal gifts from the 19th century, which had great material and also great historical value. For this reason King Aleksandar I Karađorđević (1888–1934) gave Manasija Monastery a new large bell in 1925. In 1927 the cult of Despot Stefan Lazarević, the right-believing Serbian ruler and founder of Manasija, as a Saint was solemnly renewed; at the same time as Patriarch Dimitrije proclaimed the canonization of Saint Despot Stefan in the Cathedral Church in Belgrade on July 19, 1927, Bishop Mitrofan of Braničevo (Rajić, 1873–1930) served the first service to Despot Stefan in the Despot's endowment, that is, in Manasija Monastery.179 In the following year, 1928, with the generous help of Mihajlo Pupin (1854–1935),180 the first monograph on Manasija Monastery was published,181 which awakened both scholarly and general interest in the monastery. Time again brought new trials and new sufferings: the Resava fortress was badly damaged in 1929.182 But where sufferings multiply, grace multiplies too: at about that time, in 1929, yet another confessor received the monastic tonsure in Manasija as a member of the Manasija community, yet another brother and tonsured monk of Manasija Monastery numbered among the saints, the Hieromartyr Mitrofan Matić (1911–1941).183

  1. Cf. Tomić, Monasteries and Churches in Upper Resava, 103.
  2. Cf. Schematism of the Eastern Orthodox Serbian Patriarchate According to Data from 1924 (Шематизам источно православне Српске Патријаршије по подацима из 1924. године) (Sremski Karlovci: Holy Synod of Bishops, 1925), 71.
  3. Cf. Tomić, Monasteries and Churches in Upper Resava, 103–105.
  4. Cf. Bishop Sava [Vuković] of Šumadija, "Three Different Troparia and Kontakia of the Holy and Righteous Stefan, Despot of Serbia" („Три различита тропара и кондака Светог Праведног Стефана, Деспота српског"), Glasnik: Official Journal of the Serbian Orthodox Church, year LXXXI, no. 1 (January 1999): 12–13; cf. also Bishop Sava [Vuković] of Šumadija, "Three Different Troparia and Kontakia of the Holy and Righteous Stefan, Despot of Serbia," in: Bishop Sava Vuković: Selected Theological and Historical Works (Епископ Сава Вуковић: Изабрани богословско-историјски радови), edited by Negoslav Jovančević (Kragujevac: Kalenić, 2011), 92–94: 92.
  5. Cf. Dubravka M. Preradović, "The Serbian Monuments Series of the National Museum in Belgrade and the Mihajlo Pupin Fund. The Correspondence of Mihajlo Pupin and Vladimir R. Petković" („Едиција Српски споменици Народног музеја у Београду и фонд Михаила Пупина. Преписка Михаила Пупина и Владимира Р. Петковића"), Zbornik Narodnog muzeja. Art History, vol. XXIII/2 (2018): 263–285, URI: https://dais.sanu.ac.rs/123456789/12494.
  6. Cf. Stanoje Stanojević, Lazar Mirković, and Đurđe Bošković, Manasija Monastery. Serbian Monuments, vol. V (Belgrade: National Museum in Belgrade, 1928).
  7. Cf. Đ[urđe]. Bošković, "A Crime or Negligence? The Repair of Manasija Monastery" („Злочин или нехат. Оправка манастира Манасије"), Politika, year XXVI, no. 7702 (October 12, 1929): 8; Z. S., "Bad Painters, with the Blessing of Our Bishops, Are Destroying the Most Beautiful Monuments of Our Medieval Culture. University Professor Dr. Petković on the Restoration of the Endowment of Despot Stevan" („Рђави сликари, уз благослов наших архијереја, уништавају најлепше споменике наше средњевековне културе"), Vreme, year IX, no. 2844 (November 24, 1929): 3.
  8. The hieromonk Mitrofan Matić was born in 1911 in the Banat village of Ivanda, not far from Ciacova (Čakovo), in the territory of the Eparchy of Timișoara, today in Romania. His baptismal name was Milisav. After completing his primary education, he enrolled in the Monastic School at the monastery of Rakovica near Belgrade, which he completed in the 1927/28 school year. He took his monastic vows at the end of 1929 in Manasija Monastery. The following year he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and then to the rank of hieromonk. As a priest-monk, Father Mitrofan later served in several different monasteries, and in 1935 he was assigned to the duty of superior of the monastery of Čokešina. The hieromonk Mitrofan perished tragically in the summer of 1941. He was killed before reaching the age of 30, on August 11, 1941, on the road between Lešnica and Prnjavor in Mačva. His mortal remains were buried in the churchyard of the monastery church in Čokešina. His murderer was later arrested and revealed details about Father Mitrofan's confessing stance and his readiness to suffer for his faith. While still a pupil of the Monastic School, the Holy Hieromartyr Mitrofan was editor of the student paper Monaški podmladak (The Monastic Youth), and as a priest-monk he contributed to eighteen newspapers and journals. He was a very prolific poet and author - besides all his monastic duties, he managed to publish about 70 poems and 56 articles. Father Mitrofan wrote more than 30 of his poems in Manasija Monastery. Cf. Hieromonk Mitrofan Matić, A Monk's Heart (Монахово срце), collected and with a foreword by Radoslav-Braca Pavlović (Kragujevac: Kalenić, 1991); Mitrofan Matić, Collected Poems (Сабране песме), poems collected by Đorđe Đekić (Birmingham: Lazarica The People's Monk: The Life of Mitrofan Matić, Press, 2003); Vladimir P. Petrović, Hieromartyr of Čokešina (Народни монах: животопис Митрофана Матића, свештеномученика чокешинског) (Čokešina: Monastery of Čokešina; Joševo: Duhovno-nacionalni centar, 2008); Đorđe Đekić, Father Mitrofan Matić: One Life - One Story (Отац Митрофан Матић: један живот - једна прича) (Ruma: Đ. Đekić, 2015).