REMAINS OF BISHOP NIKOLAJ VELIMIROVIĆ TRANSFERRED

BIJELJINA, May 2 /SRNA/ – On May 3, 1991, the remains of Bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church Nikolaj Velimirović /1881–1956/, an exceptional preacher, doctor of theology and philosophy who died in 1956 in a Russian monastery in the USA, were transferred to the village of Lelić near Valjevo.

Serbian Orthodox theologian and preacher Nikolaj Velimirović was canonized as Saint Nikolaj of Ohrid and Žiča.

After completing theological studies in Switzerland, he earned a doctorate in theology from the University of Bern, then graduated in philosophy from the University of Oxford and completed a second doctorate in Geneva.

Upon returning to Serbia, he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade, took monastic vows in 1909, and later completed the Spiritual Academy in Petrograd /St. Petersburg/.

He spent the Great War in the West as an envoy of the Serbian government, and during World War II, he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp.

Between the two world wars, Bishop Nikolaj founded the Orthodox Christian People's Movement, known as the "Bogomoljački pokret" /Prayerful Movement/, to protect the people from aggressive sectarian propaganda.

The Germans did not forgive him for his role in the overthrow of the Tripartite Pact in late March 1941, so during the occupation of Yugoslavia in World War II, they imprisoned him first in the Ljubostinja Monastery and later in the Vojlovica Monastery.

In 1944, Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp along with Patriarch Gavrilo Dožić.

After the liberation of Yugoslavia, Bishop Nikolaj remained in exile as an irreconcilable opponent of Josip Broz Tito's regime.

He died in exile in the Russian Monastery of St. Tikhon in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, and was buried at the Serbian national cemetery next to St. Sava Monastery in Libertyville.

At the session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in May 2003, Bishop Nikolaj was included among the saints.

The solemn canonization was performed in the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar on May 24 of the same year.

The most well-known works of Saint Bishop Nikolaj include: "Njegoš's Religion", "Sermons Under the Mountain", "Beyond Sin and Death", "Soul of Serbia" and "Serbia in Light and Darkness".