Page 762 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Protopresbyter-stavrophor Savo B. jović
The Patriarchate of Peć dormitory burned in 1981
began to cut down the forest belonging to the monastery. First they were cutting at night but now they have begun cutting by day with groups of ten or more people even com- ing with wagons. This is the formal destruction of the mon- astery’s forests. We have gone to stop them from this de- struction and were pelted with rocks until we retreated for they would have smashed our heads. Then we went to the National police several times and filed formal complaints against some people whose names we were able to discov- er; nothing has been done with these to this day, therefore, we ask for Your Grace’s intervention to stop the destruc- tion of the forest. So far we have counted 300 stumps and all were among the biggest trees. as Your Grace is aware, this monastery has no (land) with the exception of very little meadowland and this forest, so if the forest is destroyed it will be left with nothing. Moreover, in addition to the materialdamage,thereareotherimportantconsequences from this destruction as follows:
1) The monastery itself is located on a hilltop that is gradually eroding and once the forest is destroyed, what will hold the earth?
2) The same is true of strong winds and since the large hill above the monastery is also rocky, there is nothing to stop even the smallest falling rock.
3) Finally, the natural beauty of the monastery’s sur- roundings, which has been declared a cultural monument, is being ruined.”
We are submitting the above report and asking for ur- gent intervention to prevent the further cutting down of the monastery forest, to open an investigation to find those guilty for the timber already cut down and to compensate the monastery for the damage that has been done.
in connection with this, we are free to remind that this is not an isolated case because the forests of Devič Monas- tery near Srbica, Sokolica Monastery near Kosovska Mi- trovica and St. Mark’s Monastery near Prizren are being massively and illegally timbered, and attacks are also being
A view on burnt dormitory of the Patriarchate of Peć, 1981
carried out against the forest of Visoki Dečani Monastery, regarding which we have already intervened several times with the Council.
These cases incite us to think and ask ourselves: what has been encouraging the neighbors of Orthodox monas- teries during the past two years to attack their property, i.e. the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church?”59
Bishop Pavle then informed the Holy Synod of Bishops regarding new suffering and permanent departures by Serbs: “i served and addressed the people on the church pa- tron saint’s days in Nerodimlje, Koš, Štrpce, Velika Hoča, Pasjane and Lipljan, and consecrated the church and bell tower in Babljak. The church was completed and appoint- ed before the war but until now it had not been consecrat- ed. in the village of Pasjane near Gnjilane, where i served on the feast of the Transfiguration, i heard the story of the sufferingof’St.Bosiljka’,ayounggirlfromthevillagewhom the albanians abducted at the end of the period of Turkish rule and wanted to make Muslim by force but she tore off the Muslim pantaloons in which they dressed her and re- fused to eat. When they saw they could do anything with her, they hacked her to pieces and threw her into the road. The peasants collected the pieces that were not scattered by the dogs and buried her in the church. Her mother, from the eminent family of Rajčić, upon hearing how Bosiljka had perished, said, ’When she thus protected her honor
and faith, i have no reason to weep but to sing’!” Requiems, memorial services and memorial days, rev- erence of the deceased in general is still alive among the people. in several places, out of piety toward the decease, the people fenced in fenceless cemeteries of their own ini- tiative because they could not wait for the municipal ad- ministrations, which according to the law own the ceme-
teries, to do it.
59 AHSB, Syn No 121/1967.
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