Page 391 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Kosovo 1389
St Nikolai of Žiča (Velimirović)
None of the Christian peoples has in its history what the Serbian people have in Kosovo. Some 60 years after the Battle of Kosovo, Constantinople fell,
the capital of eastern Christianity. The Chris- tian emperor, of Serbian blood and origin by one of his par- ents, was killed. it could be said that that disaster was like Kosovo. and it might also be said that it was an event even greater than Kosovo. God forbid! in the field of Kosovo the Christian army marched toward death, while in Constan- tinople they remained in the town hoping to the last mo- ment that death would somehow turn its back on them. When the first cannonballs in history penetrated the city ramparts, terror ensued so that both the army and the citi- zens were panic stricken. all the churches were filled with crying and prayer to God for the salvation of the city, that is for the salvation of their bodies and for the salvation of the state and the earthly kingdom. That is why the Greeks recorded the fall of Constantinople as night and not as day, as destruction and not as victory. it is true that it was a battle between the cross and the crescent, but without an épopée and without any inspiration for future generations. For a defeat understood only as defeat cannot arouse any- body’s enthusiasm. Nor can Golgotha itself without the Resurrection inspire and strengthen anybody.
The Serbian Kosovo is a totally different matter. as the dead are dressed in new and expensive clothes, so was the Serbian army dressed in its best robes. The glowing pro- cession hurried from all the borders of the empire onto honor and fame, to the field of Kosovo. Shaded with cross- shaped banners and the icons of their family saints (slava), singing and cheering, singing and playing musical instru- ments, with song and joy, the army rushed toward its exe- cution. Does not that remind us of the first groups of Chris- tians who in such a mood went under the sword or to the fire or before the beasts? Not a single Christian martyr is known to have prayed to God to save him from his approach- ing death, while thousands and thousands are known to have prayed not to be spared from a martyr’s death. Nei- ther did Lazar’s army hold prayers for salvation from death. On the contrary, it confessed its sins and took Commu- nion in preparation for death. an entire people as one Chris- tian martyr, obedient to the thoughtful will of the almighty, accepted the bitterness of death, and that not as bitterness but as a life-giving force.
and has not Kosovo right up to the present day, indeed, served as a vital force to dozens of generations? in the his- tory of the Christian peoples there is not another case of one entire army, an entire nation being imbued by the wish to
die in order to meet death for the sake of its religion. This was not to meet a sui- cidal but a heroic death. Kosovo is unique in the 20 centuries old history of the Christian world.
Those are mistaken who
say that Kosovo stopped the
wheel of our history and
held us back. if it had not
been for Kosovo, we would
have been a great nation
today! it was Kosovo that
made us a great nation. it is
our Golgotha; but it is at
the same time our spiritual and moral resurrection. Still, the holy body of Lazar, imbued with Heavenly power, lies whole even today curing all human disabilities. The bodies of the other knights of the cross were not lost, although they remained on the battlefield. Their bodies were sancti- fied by their holy souls, and the entire land of Kosovo was dedicated by their holy bodies. Thenceforth Kosovo be- came the campo santo, the holy field.
That is why the Serbs, even those living in america, come and take a handful or a bag of soil from the holy field of Kosovo to carry it and keep it as a sacred relic in their places of worship and their homes, as is done from the tomb of St. Demetrius in Thessalonika or the graves of other Christian martyrs. Kosovo is the greatest tomb of Christian martyrs killed in a single day. No other of such magnitude is known to us. and celebrating the deathday of their saint, the whole Serbian people honor and commem- orate St. Vitus’ Day (Vidovdan). He who honors the holy martyrs, such as the archdeacon Stephen or George or De- metrius or Theodore or Triphon or Good Friday and eas- ter Sunday or Ss. Petar and Paul, does not honor the de- feated but the victor; neither does he honor the dead but the living.
Therefore, by celebrating the great martyrdom of the Kosovo martyrs, we do not celebrate the defeated ones but the victors, not the dead but those who are alive. Vidovdan is the greatest Slava of the Serbian people. it is day and not night—it is the Day.
“Whoever keeps his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
(Matthew 10:39).
Saint King Stefan Dečanski,
icon, sister Magdalina, Gračanica Monastery
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