Page 786 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

Protopresbyter-stavrophor Savo B. jović
Prizren an albanian man well on in years was driving his sheep through the door of the monastery. The sisters told him not to do this because how would he like it if someone drove sheep through his yard. When he arrived the next day to do the same thing and a sister told him not to do it, he hit her repeatedly with a stick so she was forced to go see a physician. afterwards he reconciled with the sisters and promised to never do this again.
We will also point out the two most recent incident: an attack on students of the seminary in Prizren during which two of them were cut on the hands and back with a knife and broken bottles, as the Municipal Court in Prizren has been notified, and an attack on a professor of the same sem- inary, priest Milutin Timotijević, which resulted in a bro- ken right arm and other injuries. also an attack and vio- lence against visitors to the monastery of the Holy Trinity (...).
We are therefore forced, respected Mr. President, to appeal to you and to ask for most energetic measures to prevent illegal actions by individuals and provide our faith- ful, monks, nuns and priests on the territory of SaP Koso- vo with peace and security, as well as the protection of their property. We believe that by doing so we are not asking or expecting anything exceptional in a country based on con- stitutional principles which suffered such heavy casualties during the two world wars for peace, freedom and broth- erhood of all peoples.”
He was then asked to receive members of a delegation from the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church comprised of Bishops Pavle of Raška and Prizren, Stefan of Žiča and irinej of Niš.101
an answer to this arrived from the Commission for Reli- gions of the Executive Council of SAP Kosovo, No 08.1403/80 from February 23, 1981, signed by the president of the Com- mission Rustem Bejta, saying the following:
“In regard to your correspondence number 2244/zap. 365 from October 21, 1980, forwarded to this Commission in order to arrange a meeting between the president of the executive Council of SaP Kosovo and a delegation of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, we wish to inform you that the president of the executive Council of SaP Kosovo, despite his best wishes and readi- ness to do so, is unable to receive your delegation due to other business that cannot be postponed. it has therefore been agreed that the delegation is to be received by a mem- ber of the executive Council of the assembly of SaP Koso- vo and president of the Commission for Relations with Re- ligious Communities Rustem Bejta, together with the sec- retary of the same Commission, Golub Gojković.
We hope that the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church will accept the aforementioned justifi- cation.
101 AHSB, Syn No 2244/1980. 784
if the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church accepts this recommendation, we can subsequent- ly agree on a place and time where the delegation can be received.”102
at its regular meeting the Holy assembly of Bishops discussed the report of the Holy Synod of Bishops that the president of the executive Council of the assembly of SaP Kosovo was “not able to receive” the delegation of the Holy Synod of Bishops and discuss certain problems relating to church institutions and the faithful of the Serbian Ortho- dox Church in Kosovo, and in this regard reached the fol- lowing decision:
“Since the President of the executive Council of the as- sembly of SaP Kosovo ’did not have the time’ to receive a delegation from the Holy Synod of Bishops and discuss certain problems relating to the present conditions of in- stitutions and the faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, a prepared memorandum covering this mate- rial is to be sent by mail.
a copy of the memorandum is to be sent to the Com- missions for Relations with Religious Communities of the Federal and executive Council of the assembly of SR Ser- bia, and to all Bishops in our country.”103
The Year 1981
On March 17, 1981, the Holy Synod of Bishops acknowl- edged with deep regret the official notification that on March 16 of the same year at about 3:00 a.m. a fire broke out in the living quarters of the Stauropigial monastery of the Peć Patriarchate, and that the building had burned down with the entire inventory except the treasury which the nuns, with the help of other people, managed to save.”104
Priest Slavko Božić wrote:
“On March 16, 1981, in the morning, i.e. the Monday following the Sunday of Orthodoxy, the old monastery liv- ing quarters in the holy Lavra of the monastery of the Peć Patriarchate was destroyed by fire. The residence was 63 meters long and two stories high. The entire surface area was approximately 2,000 square meters. The winter chapel with all church trappings and liturgical books (a set of Me- naia, two Srbljaks, an Octoechos, etc.) perished in it, as did all the rooms and all the furniture, the workshops for knit- ting, sowing, preparation of icons on wood, completely equipped and with material for crafting, as well as the ware- house with monographs of this monastery (in four lan- guages), postcards, candles, religious books and valuable souvenirs. Luckily, the monastery treasury was saved.
in the fire that appeared the night of March 16 at 3:30 a.m., the old residence in the Peć Patriarchate burned down. in the ’official statement’ published the following day, it
102 AHSB, Syn No 430/1981.
103 AHSB, Syn No 1092/1981.
104 ASHB, Syn No 569/zap. 141/81.