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Saint
Nikolaj Velimirović
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Holy
bishop
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Born
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Died
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18 March 1956 (aged 75)
South Canaan Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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Venerated in
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24 May 2003 by Serbian
Orthodox Church
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Major
shrine
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Ćelije monastery, Serbia
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Saint Nikolai Velimirovich of Ohrid and Žiča or Nikolaj Velimirović (Serbian
Cyrillic: Николај Велимировић; 4 January 1881 [O.S. 23 December 1880] – 18
March [O.S. 5 March] 1956) was bishop
of Ohrid and of Žiča in the Serbian Orthodox Church, an influential
theological writer and a highly gifted orator, therefore also known as The
New Chrysostom.
His
birth name was Nikola. As a young man, he came close to dying of dysentery,
and decided that he would dedicate his life to God if he survived. Survive he
did, and was tonsured
as a monk under the name Nikolaj. He was also ordained into the clergy,
and quickly became an important leader and spokesperson for the Serbian
Orthodox Church, especially in its relations with the West. When the Germans
occupied Yugoslavia
in World
War II, Nikolaj Velimirović was imprisoned and eventually taken to Dachau concentration camp in Germany.
After
being liberated by the Allies at the end of the war, he chose not
to return to Yugoslavia (which had a Communist government by
that time). Instead, he spent some time in Europe and moved to the United
States in 1946, where he remained until his death in 1956. He strongly
supported the unity of all Orthodox churches and established particularly
good relationship with the Anglican and Episcopal Church.
INTERNET SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaj_Velimirovi%C4%87
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Velimirović as a student
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Biography
Childhood
Nikola
Velimirović was born in the small village of Lelić, Valjevo, Serbia, on the day
of the feast of Saint Naum of Ohrid, whose monastery would later be his
episcopal see. He was the first of nine children born to the family of pious
farmers. Being very weak, he was baptised soon after his birth in the Ćelije monastery, where his relics are now
resting. He was given the name Nikola because Saint
Nicholas was the family's patron saint.
The
first lessons about God, Jesus Christ, the lives of the saints and the holy
days of the Church year were provided to him by his mother, who also regularly
took him to the Ćelije monastery for prayer and Holy
Communion.
Education,
First and Second Doctor Degree
His
formal education also began in the Ćelije monastery and continued in Valjevo.
He applied for admission into the Military Academy, but was refused because he
didn't pass the physical exam. He was admitted to the Seminary of Saint Sava in
Belgrade,
where he - apart from the standard subjects - explored significant number of
writings of both Eastern and Western theological authors. He graduated in 1902.
As
an outstanding student, he was chosen to continue his studies in Russia and
Western Europe. He had a gift for languages and soon possessed a good knowledge
of Russian, French and German. From St. Petersburg he went to Switzerland
and obtained his doctorate of divinity from the Old Catholic Theological
Faculty at the University of Berne. He received his doctorate
in Theology in 1908, with the dissertation entitled Faith in the
Resurrection of Christ as the Foundation of the Dogmas of the Apostolic Church.
This original work was written in German and published in Switzerland in 1910,
and later translated into Serbian. His doctor's degree in philosophy was
prepared at Oxford and defended in Geneva, in French. The title was Berkeley's
Philosophy.
Monastic
life
In
the autumn of 1909, Nikola returned home and became seriously ill with dysentery.
He decided to become a monk and devote his life to God if he stayed alive. At
the end of 1909 his health got better and he was tonsured a monk, receiving the
name Nikolaj. He was soon ordained a hieromonk
and then elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.
Studies
in Russia
Archimandrite
Nikolaj was chosen a professor in the Seminary of St. Sava in Belgrade. It was
decided that he needed to accomplish Orthodox studies before becoming a
teacher. As was the custom in those days he was sent to Imperial
Russia to continue his studies. After his return to Belgrade, in 1911 when
he was thirty-one years old he was appointed to the University of Belgrade's Academy of
Theology, teaching philosophy, logic, history and foreign languages. His talks
and sermons, printed and distributed were read avidly throughout Serbia. It was
partly because his exposition of the Christian faith was inspired by the life
of St. Sava, the national patron saint of Serbia. In the Church itself he had
only the authority of his words and personality: he was just a monk, but even
so he seemed destined to exert great influence. It was not surprising that in
1915 he was entrusted with a mission to Great Britain in order to gain the
co-operation of the Church of England in educating the young students who had
been evacuated when the Austrian, German and Bulgarian forces threatened to
overwhelm the country. One of his students in Belgrade was Justin
Popović.
Missions
during World War I
In
his lifetime, Father Nikolaj visited the USA
four times. He visited England in 1910. He studied English and was capable of
addressing an audience and making strong impression on the listeners. Shortly
after the outbreak of the World War I this contributed to his appointment by
the Serbian government to a mission in the United States. In 1915, as an
unknown Serbian monk, he toured most of the major U.S. cities, where he held
numerous lectures, fighting for the union of the Serbs and South Slavic
peoples. This mission gained grounds: America has sent over 20,000 volunteers
to Europe, most of whom later fought on the Salonika
Front. During Velimirović's US-campaign occurred the great retreat of the
Serbian Army through the mountains of Albania. He
embarked home in 1916; as his country was now in enemy hands, he went to
England instead. His eloquence and character made him an unofficial spokesman
of his people. His success was such, that not only has he fulfilled the
mission, but has also been awarded a Doctorate of Divinity honoris
causa from the University of Cambridge.
He
gave a series of notable lectures at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and
preached in St. Paul's Cathedral as well as in other cathedrals
and churches throughout the land. He also preached in the Episcopal chapel,
where his practical discourse attracted many hearers. Velimirović became
celebrated. At the same time he was active in the promotion of the Serbian
Relief Fund and was successful in obtaining a university education for Serb
students, several of whom, including Bishop Irinej of Dalmatia, took
their degrees before they returned to their own country after the war. In 1918
Velimirović returned to the United States, for a second visit, but as a
celebrity who was to address the American people as a whole on behalf of
Serbian relief. In 1919 he received another Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from
the University of Glasgow. From Glasgow his
repute as a theological scholar and preacher spread throughout the United
Kingdom. After the war, he returned to Belgrade in April 1919.
Bishop
In
1919, Archimandrite Nikolaj was consecrated Bishop of Žiča but did not remain long in that
diocese, being asked to take over the office of Bishop in the Eparchy of Ohrid (1920-1931)
and Eparchy of Ohrid and
Bitola (1931-1936) in southern parts of Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Whether that was his
own wish is not clear. It was in a way a mission post for the people of the
lately recovered Serbian territory were backward and there was still vestiges
of the Ottoman days still prevailing in habit, pagan superstition and even
black magic.
The
percentage of illiteracy was very high and the population was for the most part
very poor. He had many difficulties there but a great number of humble folk
became attached to him and felt that even to touch his hand was to receive
blessing. For many years his seat was the ancient monastery of Sveti Naum at
the south end of the Lake Ohrid. It was there he wrote Ohridski Prologue.
In 1920, for the third time, he journeyed again in the United States, this time
on a mission to organize the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of North America.
The Outlook
Magazine carried an interesting story about Bishop Nikolaj after visiting the
United States in their 23 February 1921 issue (pp. 285-86):
"He is Bishop of Ohrid, near the Albanian border, and is a popular and beloved leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Last summer an American accompanied him on a journey into the mountains, where he was to preach in a remote village church. They found the roads lined for twenty-five miles with men, women and children, who had journeyed far on foot to greet him, and in the mountain church the densely packed people had been standing all through the night...."
Finally,
in 1927, he came to the U.S. once more, to speak before the Institute of
Politics in Williamstown, Massachusetts. A reporter
covering the event, wrote:
"His black monk's
robe, his long black beard, and his dark, living eyes, set in an oval Slavic
face, gave him an appearance which contrasted as strongly with that of
conventionally dressed professors and diplomats as did his views of the common
problems of world peace contrast with theirs. His charm and urbanity of manner,
the completeness of his grasp upon international problems only emphasized the
difference in his thought....Bishop Nikolaj, speaking from the point of view of
a civilization in which men still are more important than institutions, points
out that peace or war is a matter of the way men think and feel toward each
other, and that all other things are only outgrowths of this. The greatest
force for affecting men's attitudes toward each other he believes would be a
reunited Christian Church" (Living Age, Vol. 335-36, 1928-29).
In
1935, he reconstructed the cemetery of the fallen German soldiers from World
War I in Bitola.
During the Milan Stojadinović administration when the
Patriarchate became vacant (after the poisoning of Patriarch Varnava and the
failed attempt at ratifying a Concordat with the Vatican) he
was reportedly an obvious choice but allegedly too greatly identified with the
democratic idealism of England and the United States of America (places he
frequently visited) while Stojadinović leaned towards Germany and Italy.
Still,
except for his unwavering opposition to Communism, there was very little that
could be labelled "political" in Velimirović's ministrations and
writings. The most that could be said was that he strove to keep Serbia alive
after it had been merged in the larger state of Yugoslavia. He started a
movement for the renewal and care of the old churches, shrines and cemeteries
in Macedonia. It had been at his suggestion that the large illustrated volume
South Slav Monuments was compiled and then published in London and when he was
made Bishop of Ohrid he began that work of restoration which still continues to
this day.
The
1930s
In
1936, he finally resumed his original office of Bishop in the Eparchy of Žiča, returning for the Monastery of Žiča not far distant from Valjevo and
Lelić where he was born. At Žiča he started a movement for the revival of the
Serb Church evoking the inspiration of its patron saint Saint Sava.
He seldom gave a sermon without mentioning the saint's name. Eventually in
exile he wrote the only substantial biography of St. Sava
which we have. In the years preceding the outbreak of World War II Velimirović
continuing his campaign for a Serb revival instituted what may be called a Society
of Prayer and renewed the ancient custom of Christians gathering together
to visit a friend's house for prayer, in that way making Christianity social
rather than individualistic and solitary. This social prayer extended over a
large area and drew national attention. It was described in the newspapers, and
pictures of the benign and now almost apostolic countenance of Bishop Nikolaj
appeared in Sunday editions.
Detention
and imprisonment in World War II
During
World
War II in 1941, as soon as the German forces occupied Yugoslavia, Bishop
Nikolaj was arrested by the Nazis in the Monastery of Žiča, after
which he was confined in the Monastery of Ljubostinja.
Later he was transferred to the Monastery of Vojlovica (near Pančevo) in
which he was confined together with the Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo V until the
end of 1944. On 15 September 1944 both Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo V (Dožić) and
Bishop Nikolaj were sent to Dachau concentration camp, which was at
that time the main concentration camp for clerics arrested
by the Nazis. Both Velimirović and Dožić were held as special prisoners
(Ehrenhäftlinge) imprisoned in the so-called Ehrenbunker (or Prominentenbunker)
separated from the work camp area, together with high-ranking Nazi enemy officers
and other prominent prisoners whose arrest has been dictated by Hitler
directly.
In
August 1943 German general Hermann
Neubacher became special emissary of the German Foreign Office for
Southeastern Europe. From 11 September 1943 he was also made responsible for
Albania. In December 1944 Velimirović and Dožić were transferred from Dachau to
Slovenia,
together with Milan Nedić, the Serbian collaborationist PM, as the Nazis attempted to
make use of Patriarch Gavrilo's and Nikolaj's authority among the Serbs in
order to gain allies in the anti-Communist movements. Contrary to claims of
torture and abuse at the camp, Patriarch Dožić testified himself that both he
and Velimirović were treated normally.
Later,
Velimirović and Patriarch Gavrilo (Dožić) were moved to Austria, and
were finally liberated by the US 36th Infantry Division in Tyrol
in 1945. He was physically weakened by these vicissitudes. He was brought to
England. Velimirović and Dožić were at Westminster
Abbey at the baptism of King Peter II of Yugoslavia's son and heir, Crown Prince Alexander of
Yugoslavia. Velimirović preached a very moving sermon at the Serb chapel in
the house in Egerton Gardens. But there was no place for him in England such as
there had been during the First World War. Patriarch Gavrilo, being old and
ill, returned to what then came to be known as the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, where he died soon after his arrival. Velimirović opted to
emigrate to the United States.
He
was allowed to spend the last years of his life in the United States, only
returning once to England when he came to consecrate the Church of St Sava in
1952, an occasion when Serbs in their thousands rallied from the mines and
factories of England to the walls of the great church in Ladbroke
Grove. The sacred edifice was packed out and the overflow crowd streamed
all the way to the London Underground with Velimirović's voice
sounding through the air on loudspeakers.
Immigration
and Last Years
After
the war he never returned to the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, but after spending some time in Europe, he finally immigrated
as a refugee
to the United States in 1946. There, in spite of his health problems, he
continued his missionary work, for which he is considered An Apostle and
Missionary of the New Continent (quote by Fr. Alexander Schmemann), and has also been
enlisted as an American Saint and included on the icons and frescoes All
American Saints.
He
taught at several Orthodox Christian seminaries
such as St. Sava's Seminary in Libertyville, Illinois, Saint Tikhon's Orthodox
Theological Seminary and Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, St. Vladimir's Orthodox
Theological Seminary now in Crestwood, New York.
Posthumous
Velimirović
died on 18 March 1956, while in prayer at the foot of his bed before the
Liturgy, at the Russian Orthodox Monastery of St. Tikhon in South Canaan
Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania in the United States. He was buried
near the tomb of poet Jovan
Dučić at the Monastery of St. Sava at Libertyville, Illinois. After the fall of
communism, his remains were ultimately re-buried in his home town of Lelić on
12 May 1991, next to his parents and his nephew, Bishop Jovan Velimirović. On
19 May 2003, the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church recognized Bishop
Nikolaj (Velimirović) of Ohrid and Žiča as a saint and decided to include him
into the calendar of saints of Holy Orthodox Church (18 March and 3 May).
Controversies
Allegations of anti-Semitism
Some
of Velimirović's writings have been regarded as antisemitic.
He
was criticized for his writings in Through the Prison Window, written
while he was a prisoner at Dachau:
“[Europe] is presently the main battlefield of the Jew and his father, the devil, against the heavenly Father and his only begotten Son. […]
[Jews] first need to become legally equal with Christians in order to repress Christianity next, turn Christians into faithless, and step on their necks. All the modern European slogans have been made up by Jews, the crucifiers of Christ: democracy, strikes, socialism, atheism, tolerance of all faiths, pacifism, universal revolution, capitalism and communism… All of these are invention of the Jews and their father, the Devil.
According
to social psychologist Jovan Byford, similar but less violent remarks can be
found in New Speeches under the Mountain, The Ohrid Prologue or Indian
Letters
In
his "Through the Prison Window", he was puzzled why the Europeans
showed so much tolerance to the Jews and could not see through their
"ploys". He also criticized European scientific achievements in the
field of particle physics for being anti-Christian and possibly introduced by
Jews. Further, he criticized the "mania for cleanliness" as being
introduced by the Jews.
Despite
the accusations of anti-semitism, it is recorded that he protected and helped
one Jewish family escape from Nazi-occupied Serbia. Ela Trifunović (née
Neuheus), wrote to the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2001, claiming that she had
spent 18 months hiding in Ljubostinja monastery where she was smuggled by
Velimirović, guarded and later helped move on with false papers.
Velimirović and Hitler
Adolf
Hitler decorated Nikolaj Velimirović in 1935 for his contributions to the
restoration of German military cemetery in Bitola in 1926. Some claim that the
order was returned in protest at German aggression in 1941,
In
a treatise on St. Sava in 1935, he supported Hitler's treatment of German
national church and is quoted as saying:
However, a due respect is to be to the current German Leader, who being a simple craftsman and a man from the people, realized that nationalism without faith is an anomaly, a cold and insecure mechanism. And so, in the XX century, he came to the idea of Saint Sava, and as a layman undertook among his people that most important work, befitting a saint, a genius and a hero. And for us that work has been accomplished by Saint Sava, the first among the saints, the first among the geniuses and the first among the heroes in our history. He accomplished it perfectly, he accomplished it without fight and without blood, and he accomplished it not yesterday or the day before, but 700 years ago.
Velimirović and Ljotić
Velimirović
had high opinion of Dimitrije Ljotić, a Serbian fascist politician and
German collaborationist.
In
an interview given in the United States in 1953, Velimirović claimed that he
was the spiritual gray eminence behind the nationalist and collaborating
extreme-right ZBOR
organization. The military arm of that organization (SDK - Srpski Dobrovoljački
Korpus - Serbian Volunteer Corps)
was fighting against both Partisans and Chetniks in
World War II and was responsible for numerous civilian executions in Serbia of
both Serbs and other nationals (Jews, Roma, etc.) When the leader of ZBOR,
Dimitrije Ljotić, was arrested in 1940 by the Yugoslav government, Velimirović protested in
a letter to the PM, Dragiša Cvetković. Velimirović attended Ljotić's
funeral in 1945 and spoke very positively of him even though it was already
known that Ljotić was collaborating with the Germans. He spoke of Ljotić as of
"ideologue of Serbian nationalism".
Velimirović and Germans
In
spite of accusations of collaboration leveled during Communist times, some of
Velimirović's actions and writings were directed against the Germans who got
suspicious of him when he supported the coup in April 1941. They suspected him
of collaborating with the Chetniks and formally arrested him and kept him first
in Ljubostinja Monastery in 1941 and then in 1944 in Dachau concentration camp.
In
Dachau, he was imprisoned in Ehrenbunker, together with other clergy and
high-ranking Nazi enemy officers, and was allowed to wear his own religious
clothes, having access to officer's canteen. It is claimed that he was never
tortured and had access to officer's medical services. Contrary to the reports
that Velimirović was liberated when American 36th American division reached
Dachau, both he and Patriarch Dožić were actually released in December 1944,
having spent three months in the camp. They travelled to Slovenia, from where
Velimirovic continued first to Austria then to United States. However, there is
documented evidence, including photographs of Bishop Nikolaj (Velimirović) and
Patriarch Gavrilo (Dožić) present at the baptismal of Prince Alexander
(Karađorđević) in London,
England, in
1945 before Nikolaj emigrated in 1946 to the U.S. and Patriarch Gavrilo
returned home.
Literary criticism
Amfilohije
Radović points out that part of his success lies in his high education and
ability to write well and his understanding of European culture.
Velimirović
is viewed as less original by non-theologians. Literary critic Milan Bogdanović
claims that everything Velimirović wrote after his Ohrid years did
nothing more than paraphrase orthodox canon and dogma. Bogdanović views him as
a conservative who glorified the Church and its ceremonies as an institution.
Others claim he brought little novelty into Orthodox thought. This, however, is
explained by true Orthodox thought, because, as Saint John of Damascus writes,
"It is for that reason that I say (teach) nothing of what is mine. I
briefly express the thoughts and words passed down by Godly and wise men."
This is the consensus of Orthodox thought, which is to preserve what has always
been taught by Christ, the Apostles, and the Church. Even the Scriptures write,
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you
than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed" (Galatians
1:8). The goal in Orthodoxy is not to create "new" thought, but to
preserve Holy Tradition handed down by divine revelation.
Partial bibliography
- Моје успомене из Боке (1904) (My memories from Boka)
- Französisch-slavische Kämpfe in der Bocca di Cattaro (1910)
- Beyond Sin and Death (1914)
- The New Ideal in Education (1916)
- The Religious Spirit of the Slavs (1916)
- The Spiritual Rebirth of Europe (1917)
- Orations on the Universal Man (1920)
- Молитве на језеру (1922)
- Thoughts on Good and Evil (1923)
- Homilias, volumes I and II (1925)
- Читанка о Светоме краљу Јовану Владимиру ()
- The Prologue from Ohrid (1926)
- The Faith of Educated People (1928)
- The War and the Bible (1931)
- The Symbols and Signs (1932)
- The Chinese Martyrs by Saint Nikolai Velimirovich (Little Missionary, 1934 — 1938)
- "Immanuel" (1937)
- Теодул (1942)
- The Faith of the Saints (1949) (an Orthodox Catechism in English)
- The Life of Saint Sava (Zivot Sv. Save, 1951 original Serbian language version)
- Cassiana - the Science on Love (1952)
- The Only Love of Mankind (1958) (posthumously)
- The First Gods Law and the Pyramid of Paradise (1959) (posthumously)
- The Religion of Njegos (?)
- Speeches under the Mount (?)
- Emaniul (?) (Emmanuel)
- Vera svetih (?) (Faith of the holy)
- Indijska pisma (?) (Letters from India)
- Iznad istoka i zapada (?) (Above east and west)
- izabrana dela svetog Nikolaja Velimirovića (?) (Selected works of saint Nikolaj Velimirović)
References
- Translated and adapted from Serbian Wikipedia: Николај Велимировић
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Preceded by
Sava (Barać) |
Bishop of Žiča
1919-1920 |
Succeeded by
Jefrem (Bojović) |
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Preceded by
Chrysostom (Kavourides), Metropolitan of Pelagonia |
Bishop of Ohrid
1920-1931 |
Succeeded by
Eparchy of Ohrid merged with Bitola |
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Preceded by
Eparchies of Ohrid and Bitola merged in 1931 |
Bishop of Ohrid and Bitola
1931-1936 |
Succeeded by
St. Platon |
|
Preceded by
Jefrem (Bojović) |
Bishop of Žiča
1936-1956 |
Succeeded by
German (Đorić) |
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