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Manasija Monastery: A History

Page 28 of 60

Again and again, the time of severe trials for Manasija Monastery was only beginning. In the whirlwind of the Second World War, according to claims in the literature, the hieromonk Nikanor was appointed acting superior of Manasija Monastery in place of abbot Pavle in 1943; besides him, during the Second World War the hieromonk Jefrem (around 1943) and the sinđel Maksim Rajić (from 1943) were also in Manasija Monastery.196 According to the literature, in August 1945 the sinđel Metodije was appointed acting superior of Manasija Monastery, and he performed that duty until 1948; together with him, the sinđel Miron Jovičić was also in the monastery during 1945 and 1946.197 Having served the prison sentence to which he had been condemned by the new authorities after the Second World War, Father Pavle Panić returned to Manasija Monastery in 1948.198 The new authorities had their own reasons for sentencing the abbot of Manasija to penal servitude, and accordingly, in postwar historiography abbot Pavle Panić was classed among the collaborators, domestic traitors and enemies of the people.199 Be that as it may, declared an enemy of the people, like his contemporary Bishop Nikolaj and other clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church who were declared collaborators, Father Pavle, sharing the fate of many other clerics of that period, was sentenced after the Second World War to five years in prison.200 Father Pavle was released from prison early on parole, and for health reasons he apparently stayed for some time in the monastery of Petkovica in Mačvanski Prnjavor,201 and he returned to Manasija Monastery after treatment, most probably in September 1948, when he was again appointed superior.202 In the context of the radical changes in the social climate and the new circumstances that arose after the Second World War, it would come as no surprise if a grave injustice had been done to Father Pavle Panić: the person and work of this clergyman have yet to be researched. What is certain for now is the fact that during the Second World War, under Nazi occupation, Father Pavle was also a prisoner - in the Banjica camp, where he spent seven months, as he says in one of his petitions written in 1947.203

  1. Cf. Tomić, Monasteries and Churches in Upper Resava, 108–109.
  2. Cf. Tomić, Monasteries and Churches in Upper Resava, 110. It is possible that the hieromonk Miron Jovičić is mentioned in Manasija Monastery as early as 1933 (cf. Tomić, Monasteries and Churches in Upper Resava, 110), and perhaps also in 1934, as the unnamed "deputy Jovičić" who is mentioned in the press (cf. A. T. P., "The Main Dome of Manasija Monastery in Danger of Collapse," Pravda, year XXX, no. 10.657 (Friday, July 6, 1934): 7).
  3. Cf. Tomić, Monasteries and Churches in Upper Resava, 110–111.
  4. One finds claims in the literature that Father Pavle was deputy commander (vojvoda) of the Resava-Ravanica Chetnik detachment (cf. Damnjan Popović, On the Slopes of Beljanica (На обронцима Бељанице), Chronicles from the National Liberation War. Series I (Novi Sad: Federation of Associations of Veterans of the National Liberation War of SR Serbia, 1969), 135, 155; Dimitrije Đulić and Miodrag Milačić, A Chronicle of Ćuprija [Ćuprija on the Morava] (Хроника Ћуприје [На Морави Ћуприја]) (Ćuprija: Municipal Board of the Federation of Associations of Veterans of the National Liberation War, 1977), 247), or that the Manasija abbot Pavle was a member of the Chetnik war staff (Aleksandar Vitorović, Central Serbia: The Book Was Written by Aleksandar Vitorović on the Basis of Collected and Processed Material (Централна Србија) (Belgrade: Nolit - Prosveta, 1967), 127), and that in 1943 the staff of a brigade of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland was located in Manasija Monastery (Popović, On the Slopes of Beljanica, 155). On the other hand, one also finds claims that Father Pavle Panić was abbot of the monastery of Ravanica from 1943 until July 25, 1944, and that a certain abbot Pavle had been a member of the brotherhood of the Ravanica monastery in the preceding prewar period (cf. Bogomir M. Mihajlović, Senje and the Monastery of Ravanica (Сење и манастир Раваница), Biblioteka "Hronike sela", vol. 25 (Belgrade: Committee for the Study of the Village of SASA - TANJUG - Institute of Agricultural Economics - Institute for the Study of Cultural Development of Serbia; Ćuprija: Municipal Assembly of Ćuprija, 1994), 309–310).
  5. Cf. Savo B. Jović, The Imprisoned Church: The Persecution of the Clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1945 to 1985 (Утамничена Црква: страдање свештенства Српске Православне Цркве од 1945. до 1985. године) (Belgrade: S. B. Jović, 2001), 152.
  6. Cf. Veljko Đurić Mišina, Chronicle of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 1946–1958: The Time of Patriarch Gavrilo (1946–1950) and Patriarch Vikentije (1950–1958) (Летопис Српске Православне Цркве 1946–1958. године: време Патријарха Гаврила (1946–1950) и Патријарха Викентија (1950–1958)), first book (Knin - Belgrade: Serbian Cultural Society "Zora", 2000), 428–429.
  7. Cf. Tomić, Monasteries and Churches in Upper Resava, 110.
  8. Cf. Đurić Mišina, Chronicle of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 1946–1958: The Time of Patriarch Gavrilo (1946–1950) and Patriarch Vikentije (1950–1958), first book, 428.