Balkans, end of the 19th century. It is with this place that the name of Nikolai Velimirovich is associated. A small poor country, exhausted by brutal wars. Recently freed from the Turkish yoke, Serbia seeks Europe. Before peasant Serbia, the question of eradicating illiteracy and the further steady movement in step with the times arises.
Valevo and Lelich
A hundred kilometers southwest of the Serbian capital Belgrade lies the town of Valjevo - yesterday still a center of small craft production. Today it already boasts the first industrial enterprises, a railway line, and a power line. A gymnasium opens in the city, theatrical performances are held for the first time. The village of Lelic is not far from Valevo on the slope of Mount Povlen. In the most turbulent period of Serbian history, immediately before the first and second Serbian uprisings, Anthony Jovanovic moved here from Bosnian Srebrenica in the beginning of the 19th century. During the struggle for independence, he stands out for his love of the Fatherland and God. At the end of the second Serbian uprising, he was elected an elder. Anthony had two sons - Sim and Velimir. From them came two branches of a single genus - Simovichi and Velimirovichi.
Childhood of Nikola Velimirovich
Nikola Velimirovich - bishop in the future - was born on December 23, 1880. Little Nicola graduated from elementary school in Lelice. The abbot of the local monastery taught him love for the Fatherland and talked about the glorious and difficult Serbian past. Teachers of Nikola insisted that after graduating from elementary school he continued his studies at the gymnasium. At the end of the 6th grade of the gymnasium, Nikola is trying to enter the military academy, but to no avail. As a result, he becomes a seminarian in Belgrade.
Difficult years of study
He lives in the most difficult material conditions, but he ends the seminary among the best students. Some help is his participation in the dissemination of the "Christian Messenger" and the patronage of Archpriest Alexa Ilica, around which a kind of circle gathers. Alexa and her followers criticize the negative phenomena of the higher hierarchy and look for solutions to church problems. Nicola writes and publishes her first texts in The Christian Herald, filled with youthful heat and uncompromisingness.
Teacher job
According to the rules of that time, at the end of the seminary, Nikolai Velimirovich had to first work as a teacher. He receives distribution in his native places, in the village of Drachich. The young teacher brought with him not only a diploma from the seminary to Dračić, but also such a serious illness as skin tuberculosis, earned during half-starvation in the damp and dark corners of rented housing. Doctors recommend him to go to the sea. A stay in the monastery of Savin was reflected in one of his early works.
Education abroad
And soon Nikolai Velimirovich was destined to say goodbye to sweet Serbia. For some time he was still teaching in Leskovitsy, when suddenly news came of the appointment of a scholarship to him to study abroad. He goes to study in Switzerland. A decent scholarship allowed him to travel outside the country. He attended lectures by the best professors of theology at various universities in Germany. Having passed the final exams in Bern, Nikola defended his doctoral dissertation there.
In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. There was great indignation among the Serbs, but that time war was avoided. At that time, Nikolai Velimirovich was already in England. He graduated from the Department of Philosophy at Oxford, and defended his doctoral dissertation in Geneva in French.
Homecoming
And here is the return to Belgrade. Two diplomas, two doctorates. Meanwhile, he was not waiting for the warmest welcome. Officials from education and the metropolis are not only in no hurry to open all the doors in front of him, but they also do not recognize his diplomas, forcing doctors to graduate from the 7th and 8th grade of the gymnasium twice and pass final exams.
During this period, Nikolai Velimirovich Serbsky for the third time finds himself on the verge of life and death. The first time this happened when robbers tried to kidnap him as a baby. For the second time already in school years, a high school student miraculously saved him when he was already choking in the river. And when, when he arrived in Belgrade, he buried his brother, who died of dysentery, as a result he became infected. After three days in the hospital, the doctor said that his condition was such that he could only rely on God. Dr. Nikolai Velimirovich reacted quite calmly to this. After a six-week severe illness, he fully recovered.
Monastic tonsure
Directly from the hospital, he went to the Metropolitanate and declared that he wanted to fulfill his vow - to take tonsure. Metropolitan Dimitry sent Dr. Velimirovich to the nearest monastery, where, after a two-week obedience, he was tonsured on December 17, 1909. He received the monastic name of Nicholas.
The Great Gift of the Preacher
Belgrade has long been rumored that Dr. Velimirovich has the great gift of a preacher. When reports appeared in the metropolitan press about the upcoming sermon of Hieromonk Nikolai, the whole high society hastened to take seats from early in the morning. On the day of St. Archdeacon Stephen, the whole Belgrade elite gathered in the church. People listened to every word of the preacher, not hiding their admiration. For many, the word of God first sounded then in all its heavenly majesty.
After such success, Metropolitan Demetrius sent the Hieromonk to study in Russia. After the first academic discussions with students and professors, the young Serbian scholar and theologian became famous in St. Petersburg. Thanks to the local metropolitan, Nikolai gets the opportunity to travel around Russia. Acquaintance with the great country, its people and shrines gave him immeasurably more than being in the walls of the academy. Under the influence of Dostoevsky and other Russian religious thinkers, Father Nicholas begins to develop the idea of the universal man as opposed to the superman Nietzsche. Hieromonk Nikolay is appointed a junior teacher at the Svyatoslav Theological Seminary.
Now, under the pen of the hieromonk, large-volume works come out, which are first printed in magazines and then published in separate books. Nikolai continues to study philosophy, theology, art. Performs sermons. He writes a lot and actively participates in the cause of the people's association. In 1912, his books Nietzsche and Dostoevsky and Piedmont Sermons were published. Finally, a preacher appeared who was waiting for the 20th century.
Participation in the First Balkan War
In the winter of 1912, the First Balkan War begins. Serbia, together with other Orthodox countries, advocates the final liberation of the peninsula from the Turkish yoke. Although he was not subject to mobilization, St. Nicholas Velimirovich Serbsky together with the army goes to the front. He not only encourages and comforts the people, but he personally, as a volunteer nurse, provides assistance to the sick and wounded. In 1913, after the victorious and successful wars for Serbia, the Holy Council of Bishops, its participants unanimously propose to raise Father Nicholas to the empty bishop's throne. To everyone’s surprise, Nicholas declares that he cannot accept this choice because of his understanding of all the responsibility of the episcopal ministry, and because of the unhealthy atmosphere around.
1914 - a new book of his Sermons, relating to the time of the Balkan Wars - “Above Sin and Death” is published. The book went on sale just before the First World War. European civilization is entering a period of severe crisis, and Serbia faces the question of survival. On the very first day of mobilization, hieromonk St. Nicholas of Serbia Velimirovich, whose work is already known all over the world, arrives in Belgrade and puts himself at the full disposal of the military command. At the end of hostilities, Father Nikolai returns to the monastery.
Involvement in Serbia
Unprecedented successes at the beginning of the war attracted the attention of all of Europe to a small Balkan country. When Germany came to the aid of Austria-Hungary, dark days came for Serbia. There was no real help from the French army. In April 1915, the head of the Serbian government sent Father Nicholas to England with the aim of propaganda in favor of Serbia and the Serbian struggle. After England, he goes to America, where he impresses the public with his truthful sermons. In the summer of 1915, Nicholas returned to London. The huge English cathedrals could not accommodate everyone who wanted to hear his speeches. You could enter only with a pre-purchased ticket. In recognition of his combined work on English soil, the archbishop awards him with a special diploma and a pectoral cross.
Lord of the Zhych and Ohrid Dioceses
In March 1919, the Holy Bishops' Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church elected Nicholas as bishop of the ić diocese, and later in the same dignity he was sent to Ohrid. Vladyka Nikolay was not deprived of a sense of humor and knew how to use this quality both in communicating with people and in some of his sermons in order to achieve greater persuasiveness and power of influence. However, for contemporaries, he was primarily an exceptional and mysterious person. The people in Ohrid loved and respected him very much. During his stay in South Serbia, present-day Macedonia, Nikolai Velimirovich publishes books one after another: Thoughts on Good and Evil, Ohrid Prologue, Missionary Letters, Religion of the intelligentsia, and the collection of chants Spiritual Lyre, “ War and the Bible ”,“ Royal Testament ”. In Ohrid, Vladyka did much to restore ancient monasteries. Then he began the construction of a church in his native Lelice.
Upon his return to the Zhych diocese, Vladyka Nikolai immediately set about restoring the old ones and building new churches and monasteries. He has one more title - the lord of the restorer.
Participation in the second world war
When the Germans occupied Yugoslavia in 1941, Vladyka Nikolai was imprisoned at home in a monastery. He was constantly taken to interrogations. The grief that fell upon the Serbian people left an unhealing wound in the heart of the lord. Health deteriorated sharply, but he always stood during interrogations, although German officers suggested that he sit down. In the monastery, the priest is visited by priests and monks, which causes suspicion among the Germans, and they strengthen the guards. When the sisters go out and go into cells with candles, the sentries decide that it is a secret alarm. However, a search of the monastery yields no results. It is not known how all this would end if Hieromonk Vasily did not bring the award sheet received by the Bishop in 1935 from Hitler himself for the restored German military cemetery during the First World War. Then the interrogating master ordered the release of him.
Detention and concentration camp
At dawn on December 3, 1943, German soldiers entered the monastery during the service and took Bishop Nicholas of Serbia. There, the bishop was expected by a real prison regime - without the right to visit, without permission to leave the compound, turned into a place of imprisonment. Only on Sunday and on major holidays were the prisoners allowed into the monastery church and allowed to serve the liturgy.
In September 1944, the Germans sent Vladyka to the Dachau concentration camp in a freight car. The sufferings of the Serbian people during the Second World War were great - mass executions, huge sacrifices incurred in the struggle against the invaders, and the highest hierarch of the Serbian church languished in a concentration camp. Sick and exhausted, he shared the fate of other prisoners. Soon he was transferred to a prison infirmary. But nevertheless, numerous petitions were successful - Vladyka leaves the camp and is sent for treatment to Bavaria and then to Vienna under escort.
Long years of emigration
Speaking about the biography of St. Nicholas of Serbia, one can not stop at the difficult last years of life. After the defeat of the Nazis, Vladyka Nikolai chose the thorny path of emigration. In 1946, with severely undermined health, he arrives in America, further and further from his native Serbia. In the first year, St. Nicholas was awarded the degree of Doctor of Theology at Columbia University. Not only Orthodox Christians, but also other faiths in America consider Vladyka Nicholas an apostle and missionary of the New World. He continues literary and preaching activities.
Later, Nikolai retires to the Russian monastery of St. Tikhon. There he teaches in a theological seminary, then becomes its rector. Keeps in touch with compatriots in the homeland - writes letters, encourages, teaches, sends help. He writes to his nephew: “I cannot live and be silent. I will not be allowed to do this at home, but for prison I am already too old. ” Many in Serbia have already forgotten him, but the Communists continue to call him a traitor and an enemy of the people. He was deprived of the citizenship of socialist Yugoslavia from the very first days.
Books of St. Nicholas of Serbia are read secretly. Vladyka writes and preaches until the last hour of his earthly life. On Sunday morning, March 18, 1956, at the monastery of St. Tikhon, during a prayer before the Divine Liturgy, Saint Nikolai Velimirovich peacefully departed to the Lord. The whole world has said goodbye to a great personality.