Serbian military escorting Bishop’s remains

TANJUG/MINISTARSTVO ODBRANE I VOJSKA SRBIJE

The Serbian military is providing an escort for the transport of the remains of a Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Bishop to Belgrade for the city’s saint’s day celebration.

The Serbian capital will celebrate its saint’s day (Spasovdan established in 1403) with a religious procession through the center of the city at 7 pm on May 25. Saint’s day celebrations are a typically Serb tradition with towns, villages and families celebrating the feast of their patron saint.

The military escort will take the remains of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic from the Lelic monastery in the city of Valjevo to the Church of the Ascension in Belgrade, a SPC press release said. Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic is venerated by the SPC but is fiercely criticized by others for his anti-Semitism and links with Nazi collaborators during WW 2. He was imprisoned in Dachau in 1944 and died in the USA in 1956.

The Serbian Helsinki Committee said that the SPC was “stimulating growing anti-Semitism in Serbia” by devoting this year’s lithurgical procession to Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic.

The remains will be exhibited in the church on May 25 when SPC elder Patriarch Porfirije will perform a service with the mayor in attendance. The remains will lead the procession after the service.

The SPC press release said the remains will be placed in the St Sava Temple until May 27 “for the comfort and spiritual revival of the faithful in these difficult days”.

Under the Constitution, Serbia is a secular state but in practice the authorities maintain strong relations with the church.