Page 754 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Protopresbyter-stavrophor Savo B. jović
the same Committee empowering the aforementioned to remove from the Dečani treasury old historical weapons that have thus far been guarded in the monastery as its property, and to transfer same to the District Museum in Priština. The monastery administration recorded and turned over the requested weapons (29 pieces) since this admin- istration has the earlier act of Your Grace, No 1469 from September 12, 1951, in which act you gave the administra- tion general power and orders not to resist their demands with respect to such matters in order to avoid unnecessary correspondence without seeking from you any further de- cision, etc. in accordance with your above cited act, this administration acted thus and did not resist.
at the same time it is our honor to inform Your Grace that it received an order by oral notification from the (state) custodian of the monastery that without the Council and its approval the number of brother monks must not in- crease nor anyone be received for a longer time of residence; otherwise, the administration will be held responsible.
at the time of the confiscation of weapons Mr. Ratko Karakušević, an official of the Committee, orally ordered the elder of the monastery to give the key of the Holy Church to the state official, the custodian of the monas- tery, who was appointed a while ago and lives in the mon- astery. Taking into consideration all that is described above, we wonder how long this sort of attitude toward the mon- astery will last, and we also ask Your Grace for further in- structions.”
in submitting the above, it is our honor to ask the Holy Synod of Bishops to intercede with the competent office so that the confiscated keys to the holy church necessary for daily morning and evening services which are regularly carried out in this holy shrine are returned to the monas- tery, as well as that the monastery not be denied the right to increase the numbers of its brotherhood, which in the present situation is so negligible that it is unable to per- form all tasks in the monastery itself, the monastery parish and the monastery’s property in timely fashion. if the mon- astery is denied the rights to increase the present numbers of its brotherhood and if the keys of its holy church are not returned, the present administration will be forced to leave the monastery, and thus this great holy shrine of the Ser- bian people will be left without priests, something that so far has not occurred even in the days of our most difficult bondage.
in the end we note that the present brotherhood in this monastery during the time of the past war remained in the monastery although in life-threatening danger, a fact that we can state with certainty saved it from being torched and destroyed by the occupier and prevented the theft of its historical sacred relics, which are still guarded in it com- pletely intact.
Enclosure: Copies of the act of the District People’s Council No 53127/51 and the record regarding confiscated weapons.”
The Year 1952
The letter of Ž.M. Marinković, the rector of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Prizren to the Holy Synod of Bish- ops under No 1367 from November 5, 1952, says:
“During the course of the previous and the present school year some young albanians whom we do not know attacked our students physically and threatened to beat and fight with them. One of these young men struck Gojko Mrdja, a fourth-year student, in the back with a rock as he was re- turning in the evening from vigil services in church. On that occasion, upon receiving a written report from Gojko Mrdja, i undertook steps with the local Department of in- ternal affairs of the District People’s Council and asked that our students be protected from violence. The compe- tent official (responsible for criminology) promised he would investigate and undertake necessary measures.
With this act i am enclosing a copy of the written re- port of student Mrdja, as well as the accompanying act of the Department for internal affairs for your information.”
Enclosure:
Serbian Orthodox Seminary, No 1344, October 28, 1952 in Prizren
To the Department of internal affairs of the District People’s Council in Prizren:
“it is my honor to submit this report by a student of this school with the note that some young men not known to us, who i have been told were albanians, have on several occasions ambushed the students of our school, in groups or individually, in front on the entrance to our courtyard and in the street, during the day and in the evening and usually at first dusk, provoked them and threatened to beat them up although our students have done nothing to do them.
For example, at the end of the last school year, in the month of june, some unknown young albanians beat up two of our students (Milivoj Ćirić, who has now graduated from this school, and Zdravko Stefanov, now a student of the second year) in the middle of the day in the Serbian cemetery where they were peacefully sitting and studying their lessons.
at that time, i let the incident pass, not wishing to fur- ther exacerbate the conflict. But since the violence against our students has continued into this school year, i feel it is my responsibility to inform the Department of this, and to most kindly request that the students of the school entrust- ed to me be protected from further violence and new inci- dents prevented, which may become even more serious if they are not halted in a timely manner.”43
By act No 1080, june 13 (May 31), 1952, Bishop Vladimir informed the Holy Synod of Bishops that Hieromonk Ve- nijamin (Bošković), the acting elder of Binča Monastery in the ecclesiastical administrative district of Gnjilane, sent him a letter of the following content:
43 AHSB, Syn No 132/1952.
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