Meeting St. Nikolai

Pilgrimage, Part 2

Jun 27, 2023

Temple of St. Sava, Belgrade, Serbia (photo credit, Kelly Mine)

How beloved are your dwellings, O Lord of hosts...

(Psalm 83 / 84, OSB)

On my recent pilgrimage to the Balkans, I flew into Belgrade, dropped my bags at our hotel, changed clothes, rested for about 30 minutes and then went on a walk with a couple of friends and fellow pilgrims. Just a few blocks from the hotel was the recently completed Temple of St. Sava, the seat of the Serbian Patriarch and at present one of the three largest Orthodox cathedrals in the world.

I walked in and was immediately overwhelmed with so many images and such grandeur that I could scarcely take it all in. It was stunning, to put it mildly, and the magnitude of the dome, the space surrounding me, and the millions of tiles making up the intricate mosaics on the walls needed days to properly understand, not just a short visit. It was clear that a deeper understanding of my faith was about to commence, just by walking into this building. (Reason #1)

In true Orthodox fashion the first thing that greeted us in Temple of St. Sava was a sarcophagus containing the relics of a Saint. For me this carries a touch of irony, being the last hurdle of my western-protestant-materialist squeamishness. People were walking up to venerate the saint who was lying in state in the front of the Cathedral, dressed in bishop's vestments. The friends who were with me (who happened to be cradle Orthodox, meaning they were raised in the faith) were very excited when they realized who it was—as if it was sort of unbelievable that this was happening–it was Saint Nikolai Velimirivich! My only response was a barely comprehending attempt at enthusiasm, “Oh yeah…okay, right!”

I felt hopelessly uninformed and the amount of things I just didn’t know came crashing in on me all at once. At that moment I was concerned with whether I needed to have my head covered to go in this church, and should my arms be covered, too? What saints are these on all the icons? How big is that dome? Is it really okay to just walk into this place? Is there a gift shop? Wow, I haven’t slept in over 24 hours and I don’t know how to process all of this, but I am Orthodox, and we venerate the relics of Saints so, here I go… “St. Nikolai, pray to God for me, a sinner,” and I placed a kiss on the brow of the reposed Saint. I had just venerated my first “big relics” and it did not seem to be a life changing experience, at least not at that moment.

At home I have a book that I read regularly called The Prologue of Ohrid which is a daily reflection on the lives of Saints who are being commemorated each day. I have found this book to be most helpful to me as I grow in my understanding of the Saints and Church Fathers. It was written and compiled by Saint Nikolai of Ohrid and Zhicha. He is known by the Serbians as St. Nikolai Velimirivich. More concerned with what was written in the book rather than the one who compiled it, I didn’t give it much thought. Later, it all came into focus. This man is much beloved by Serbs because he is Serbian by birth and was very influential in the Serbian Church. He is loved by Americans because he spent part of his life here after WWII and his imprisonment by the Nazis, taught in several seminaries, and reposed in the United States, though his relics were returned to his Homeland of Serbia. The translation of his Prologue of Ohrid is one of the best ways for English speaking Christians to experience the lives of the Saints. None of this was well known to me, but it was the first thing that greeted me in Serbia, and I hardly knew where to hang this bit of information on my new schematic that was about to be built. It has become clearer since that day—this Serbian / American saint who was reaching out to us and bringing us into his sphere.

Vladyka Jonah always says, “The Saints introduce themselves,” which to a convert’s ears sounds a tad weird, bordering on creepy, yet incredibly appealing. I wanted to know exactly how this happens! Of course I know there is not a formula, just as there is no formula for meeting other humans in any given context, except to make yourself approachable and to acknowledge the other person’s existence and identity but from that day on, St. Nikolai Velimirivich has been popping up in very personal ways in my life, and I am getting to know him—he certainly seems to be introducing himself.

So within the first few hours of my pilgrimage I was confronted with a Church, both physical and spiritual that was far larger than anything I can begin to understand. While I knew this in theory, I was now physically standing in an enormous edifice that embodied this reality. Personally, I was confronted with my own remaining reservations and doubts concerning the Saints, their relics and their efficacy in our lives. But that is what this whole pilgrimage was about. I am small, my worldview is limited, and my Christian theology has been a mere speck in the grand scheme of what is possible. The challenge was to listen as much as I could, enter into experiences without prejudice, and try not to offend others out of ignorance.

By the end of the tour which began in Belgrade and took us through Kosovo and North Macedonia, we had seen 50 churches, monasteries, and chapels. I had venerated many relics of saints both known and unknown to me. I had seen thousands of icons. We visited a National Park, the archeological site of Heraclea Lycenstis which was founded by Philip II of Macedon in the 4th Century B.C., and two mosques of architectural and historical significance. To say that we got our money’s worth is an understatement! To say that my mind was overwhelmed with information—also an understatement.

Because I made plans to go on this jam-packed tour of an area of the world I knew little to nothing about on rather short notice, I did not have the time to devote sufficient study to the things I would have liked to know. I did, however, look into this particular edifice (the Church of St. Sava) and its recent history and construction because it was modern enough for me to wrap my head around. It was a good place to begin to understand the country of Serbia and the Balkans, their beliefs, ideals, and indeed some of their history, which is long, incredibly complex, and hard to understand. I continue to be amazed, however, at how much I did learn and am still learning as I comb through photos, books, and memories of the places I visited and the people with whom I traveled. I have mentioned before that when an American Protestant encounters Orthodoxy, there is an aspect of crossing cultural bounds that may be overlooked. We cannot simply impose our North American Protestant cultural paradigms onto this religion and expect it to work, but if one is willing to take the time to lay aside calcified norms and presuppositions, there is a kingdom that reaches beyond what most of us have experienced or even imagined.

The price of Orthodoxy is high. It involves admitting that what we “know” barely scratches the surface of one of the stones of some of the churches that we visited on this tour, whose history dates back three or four times as long as that of this country. When we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” do we realize how vast a kingdom that is? Are we willing to pass from our limited perspective and cross into that new culture? We are just tiny new buds on branches grafted into a tree that is huge and ancient with roots that go down to the bedrock and branches that spread and house all varieties of creatures. May we be humble enough to pray and ask God to grow us into mature citizens of his kingdom. That we may be like St. Nicolai Velimirivich who effectively brought to light the lives of those saints whom we aspire to emulate. He writes in the introduction to the Prologue of Ohrid:

“The saintly person is the soul of Christ’s character, repeated, more or less, in many, many persons. The saints are cleansed mirrors in which the beauty and might of the majestic person of Christ is seen. They are the fruit on the Tree of Life; the Tree is Christ and the fruit are the saints. A tree is known by its fruit, for every good tree bringeth forth good fruit (Matthew 7:17). As grapes on the vine, so the saints grew on Christ. What the sun is among the stars and the king is among his nobles, so Christ is among the saints. There are two paths and both are correct: from Christ to the saints, and from the saints to Christ. The saints are explained by Christ and the saints bear witness to Christ. Whoever has this constantly in mind during the reading of this book, such a one will benefit by it the most.”1

May our branches grow to maturity and may our fruit be good as we make our journey into this heavenly kingdom. St. Nicolai Velimirivich, pray for us!