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This day we
traveled back thru Belgrade. We saw buildings there that
had not been repaired yet from the bombings in 1999. Here
we visited the St. Sava Cathedral that had begun
construction in 1935 but had stopped because of WWII. The
government returned the property to the Serbs and
construction continued in 1985. Words cannot describe how
big it is. Although it is not finished yet, we were able to
go inside and take a look around. The entire building is
made of marble. Walking into the church was very humbling
because of the size. It makes you realize how small you
really are. As we were leaving the bells rang. There are
approximately 150 bells in this monastery. We all felt
chills listening to them ring throughout the square in front
of the church. A statue of Karadjordje is in front of the
cathedral. He was the leader of the Serbian uprising
against the Turks in 1804. After visiting St. Sava
Cathedral we went to Pokajnica Monastery. This church was
built out of logs in 1818. The nuns that live there have
planted a wonderful garden full of flowers. It was a
gardener’s dream! We met the abbess and she invited us for
coffee and “ratluk” with her. On the way out we saw a nun
driving a tractor while tending to her chores. We could
always tell if nuns resided in the monastery by the
flowers. They have a natural green thumb.
Manasija Monastery was the
next stop on our pilgrimage. This monastery has a fortress
built around it to protect it from the Turks. It was built
in 1406. When we got there we found out they were
celebrating the 600 anniversary of the monastery. St.
Stefan Lazarevich designed the frescos in the church. He
was the son of St. Lazar. They were also doing
archeological digs while we were there so the grounds were a
little torn up. They found the remains of St. Stefan and
were very excited about it. The Turks ruled Serbia for 500
years – early 1400’s and left in 1912. The roof of this
monastery was lead and the Turks used it to make their
ammunition. This left the church open for years and caused
damage to the Frescos.
We then went to Ravanica
Monastery to stay the night. This monastery was built in
the 1300’s. They have the relics (moshti) of St. Lazar of
Kosovo. A piece of his relic is in the altar table at St.
George’s Church in Lenexa where they were placed during the
church consecration in 2006. After the morning service we
left and went to the town of Krushevac where we saw the
church of Lazarica. This was the first church St. Lazar
built. It was very small and was built in the 1300’s. Our
next monastery was Ljubostonja near Trestenik. Widows of
the Kosovo war started this monastery in 1389. We had
coffee with the abbess and bought some grape brandy and wine
they made at the monastery. We also ran into Jovan Vejnovic,
the artist who carved the iconostases in St. George Church
in Lenexa. We then drove to Vrnjcaka Banja. We did some
shopping there and took a picture with the world’s largest
“opanka” – peasant shoe. It must have been 8 feet long.
This area is famous for their wonderful spas. After dinner
we drove to Zicha Monastery to spend the night. Zicha was
built in 1207 and the Bishop calls this monastery his home.
There were 7 different Serbian kings crowned here throughout
the years. Whenever a new king was crowned they would build
a new door to enter the church. Zicha was also bombed by
the Nazi’s in WWII so most of it has been rebuilt. The
exterior is a brilliant red. It is beautiful. We woke up
at 6:00 to attend the 7:00 Liturgy. The service was
beautiful! After the Liturgy we had coffee and breakfast
with Abbess Mati Jelena. She gave us a small bag of
presents before we left. Each bag contained an icon of
Jesus, a prayer rope bracelet, incense, and information on
the church.
We then drove to Studenica
Monastery. To get there we drove thru the mountains. They
were stunning to look at! St. Simien built this church in
the 1100’s. He was the father of St. Sava. His grave with
relics was inside the monastery along with his wife,
Anastasia, and son St. Stevan Prvovenchani. The frescos were
being refurbished while we were there. According to our
guide the church had damaged the original frescos by
painting over them in the 1700’s because they wanted new
frescos. Then in the 1800’s the church hired someone to
come in and clean the frescos and they found the original
frescos underneath. These original frescos were somewhat
damaged. The famous fresco of Jesus Christ crucifixion was
in that church. They had a lounge where we had tea made
from berries they grew there. We left and ate lunch at one
of the little town’s we drove through.
Monastery Nikolje was our
last stop of the day. The church there was built in the
1300’s. They had just taken out the ikonostas to have it
worked on. According to one of the nuns termites had
started to destroy the icons. They invited us in for
slivovica, “slatko” and coffee. Father Alex served vespers,
we ate a dinner of soup, cheese gibanica, wine, pork and
tomatoes. It was unusual to have meat at a monastery but
the pork had been left over from lunch they had served to
some outside workers. The nuns were very, very nice there
especially one nun named mati Aleksandra. We had a great
time trying to communicate with her and the abbess. Thank
goodness I had brought my Serbian phrasebook! By the end of
our stay mati Aleksandra had a special place in all of our
hearts. We agreed to learn the Serbian language and she
agreed to learn English. And believe me she is a woman of
her word.
In the morning we left for
Plaski, Croatia. Along the way we went to Topola - Oplenac.
Located there is a mausoleum that King Peter I built for the
Serbian Royal Family Karadjordjevich. This mausoleum was
unbelievable. It is covered in frescos that are made from
mosaic tile. We were told that it took 60 million pieces of
tile in 15,000 different colors to make all of the frescos.
It was a long drive to
Plaski so we did not get there until well after midnight.
Each of us stayed with a different hostess. They were all
very nice and made us feel very welcome. Jodi stayed with
Djurdja Petrovic (nee Jovetic), a relative of the Budimlijas,
Sumonjas and John Harmon - Jovetic. Bonnie stayed with Nena
Visnjic, who ended up being a relative of hers from the
Vukas family. Dan stayed with Dushanka Sarcevic and her
husband who were relatives of the Gerba family. I stayed
with Milica Kraguljac and her family.
Our first morning in
Croatia we woke up to snow and lots of it. The snow didn’t
seem to slow anyone down. You still saw people riding their
bikes for transportation or walking. We drove through some
of the sub-villages of Plaski to see some of Jodi and
Bonnie’s relatives from the Vukas family in Jezero. We
stopped by two different relatives’ homes. One of them was
making their own saur kraut. We also picked up their cousin
Anka Miscevic in the town of Josipdol. Anka’s dad and +
Sava Vukas were brother and sister, which makes Anka a
cousin of Louise Draskovich and our late + Bessie Sachen and
+ Dorothy Radojevich. We drove back to Plaski and went to
church at St. Mary’s that had once been a cathedral. In
1941 Croatian Nazi’s killed a Bishop and 8 priests there.
Father had planned a memorial service for all of the Serbs
from that Plaski that had moved to Kansas City. It was very
moving. The church was pretty but needed a lot of work.
The women of Plaski threw us a welcoming party. They had
cooked all of the ethnic foods from that region. The food
was wonderful! They also sang us songs and taught Jodi,
Bonnie, and I some dances. We had a lot of fun with them.
Our last day in Croatia we
drove to Medak to see Nikola Mihic. He is my Dad and I’s
cousin. We drove thru a mountain range to get there and it
was very picturesque. We spent some time at Nikola’s
house. They served a lunch of delicious pork, pickled
peppers, bread and drink. Nikola played the tambura then
took us to the old homestead - Pocitelj where the Uzelac’s
came from. We had to stay off the roadside to keep away
from land mines left from the war.
We started the drive back
to Plaski later that afternoon. On the way we stopped at
the Nikola Tesla Museum in Smiljan near Gospic. The next
morning we said our goodbyes to our hosts and drove back to
Belgrade. From there we all went our separate ways. Father
Alex, Bonnie, and Jodi went back to Novi Sad to spend one
more day with their families. My Dad and I stayed in
Belgrade to meet the rest of our relatives.
This was quite a learning
experience for all of us. I think going back to the old
country and learning more about our heritage makes us
understand ourselves a whole lot better. For instance
Bonnie, Jodi, and I were talking one evening of how when
company comes to our house there is always food and drink
ready. That is also how it is in Serbia and Lika. Everyone
there makes you feel very welcome and as if you are part of
their family. We made a lifetime of memories in 10 days and
we will never forget them. Thank you Father Alex for
organizing such a fabulous adventure. |
