BISHOP NIKOLAJ VELIMIROVIĆ CANONIZED 22 YEARS AGO

BIJELJINA, MAY 18 /SRNA/ - On May 19, 2003, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church canonized the bishop of Ohrid and Žiča Nikolaj /Velimirović/.

Serbian Orthodox theologian and orator Nikolaj Velimirović /1881-1956/, bishop of Žiča and Ohrid, canonized as Saint Nikolaj of Ohrid and Žiča, was born on January 4, 1881.

After completing his theological studies in Switzerland, he received a doctorate in theology from the University of Bern, and then a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Oxford and a doctorate in Geneva.

After returning to Serbia, he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade, became a monk in 1909, and then graduated from the Spiritual Academy in Petrograd /St. Petersburg/.

Between the two world wars, Bishop Nikolay founded the Orthodox People's Christian Community, known as the Devotional Movement, in order to protect the people from aggressive sectarian propaganda.

The Germans did not forgive Bishop Nikolaj for his role in overthrowing the Tripartite Pact at the end of March 1941, so in World War II, as soon as they occupied Yugoslavia, they imprisoned him in the Ljubostinja Monastery, and then in the Vojlovica Monastery.

Together with Patriarch Gavril Dožić, Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović was imprisoned in the Dachau camp in 1944.

Bishop Nikolai died in exile in the Russian Monastery of St. Tikhon in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, and was buried in the Serbian National Cemetery next to the Monastery of St. Sava in Libertyville.

His most famous works are: "The Religion of Njegoš", "Sermons under the Mount", "Above Sin and Death", "The Soul of Serbia" and "Serbia in Light and Darkness".

Many years after his death, the relics of Bishop Nikolaj were transferred from Libertvil to Lelić on May 12, 1991. They were laid in the temple of the Lelić Monastery, which is his endowment.

At the session of the Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in May 2003, Bishop Nikolaj was included in the order of saints. The solemn canonization took place in the Belgrade Church of Saint Sava in Vračar on May 24 of the same year.