Repose at South Canaan

Nikolai died on 18 March 1956 at St. Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, far from his homeland. He was first buried at the Serbian monastery of St. Sava at Libertyville, Illinois; only in 1991, as communist Yugoslavia collapsed, were his relics returned to his native village of Lelić.

Tradition: Serbian Orthodox (glorified 2003)

Death at St. Tikhon’s (1956)

Nikolai Velimirović died on 18 March 1956 (5 March, Old Style) at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Monastery, South Canaan, Pennsylvania, where he had been living and teaching in his last years (Orthodox Church in America, “Serbian Patriarchate to canonize Bishop Nicholai Velimirovic, former Dean of St. Tikhon Seminary,” oca.org; “Nikolaj Velimirović,” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org; OrthodoxWiki, “Nicholas (Velimirović) of Žiča,” orthodoxwiki.org). He was in his mid-seventies. The setting of his death is itself a comment on his life: the “Serbian Chrysostom,” a bishop of Žiča and Ohrid and the leader of a national movement, died in a small monastery in rural Pennsylvania, an exile from a homeland that had condemned him. The date of his repose, 18 March, would become one of his two feast-days after his glorification (see Glorification 2003).

Burial at Libertyville

Nikolai was first buried in the United States, at the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of St. Sava at Libertyville, Illinois — the center of Serbian Orthodox life in America and the institution with which he had been most closely associated in exile (see Exile and Teaching). For thirty-five years his grave at Libertyville was a place of pilgrimage for the Serbian diaspora, who venerated his memory through the decades when, in communist Yugoslavia, his name was officially that of a traitor and his return was impossible.

The Return of the Relics to Lelić (1991)

In 1991, as the communist order in Yugoslavia was collapsing and the long suppression of Nikolai’s memory was giving way to rehabilitation, his relics were translated from Libertyville back to his native village of Lelić in western Serbia, where they were interred near his birthplace (Serbian Times, “Today We Honor Nikolaj of Žiča: On this day, Bishop Velimirović’s relics were transferred from the U.S. to the Lelić Monastery,” serbiantimes.info; “Nikolaj Velimirović,” Wikipedia). The date of this translation — commemorated as 3 May — became his second feast-day after glorification.

[Disputed: the exact day in 1991 of the translation of Nikolai's relics to Lelić is commemorated liturgically as 3 May and is so given in the accounts of the two feast-days; some reports give a slightly different calendar day for the physical transfer. The secure facts are the year (1991) and the destination (Lelić); this collection follows the 3 May commemoration date without asserting the precise transfer day beyond it.]

The homecoming of the relics was a charged public event. It marked, symbolically, the reversal of the communist verdict on Nikolai: the “traitor” of the official memory was received back in his homeland as a revered churchman, and the return of the relics was a stage in the wider rehabilitation of the Serbian Orthodox Church and its interwar leadership in the late- and post-communist years. It was one step short of the final act of that rehabilitation — the formal glorification of Nikolai as a saint, which the Serbian Church would perform in 2003 (see Glorification 2003). It was also, as Byford’s study argues, part of the memory-politics through which the contested aspects of Nikolai’s record were reframed rather than confronted (Jovan Byford, Denial and Repression of Antisemitism, CEU Press, 2008; see Legacy and Assessment).

The Two Feasts

From the glorification of 2003, Nikolai came to be commemorated on two days in the Serbian Church’s calendar (Serbian Times, serbiantimes.info; OrthodoxWiki, “Nicholas (Velimirović) of Žiča”):

  • 18 March (5 March Old Style) — the day of his repose at St. Tikhon’s in 1956;
  • 3 May — the day commemorating the return of his relics to Lelić in 1991.

These two dates bind together the two poles of his last chapter: the death in American exile and the homecoming of the relics on the eve of his rehabilitation. The details of the veneration — the glorification act, the feasts, the iconography — are treated in Section 09 (see Glorification 2003).

See Also

References

  • Orthodox Church in America. “Serbian Patriarchate to canonize Bishop Nicholai Velimirovic, former Dean of St. Tikhon Seminary.” oca.org. (Death on 18 March 1956 at St. Tikhon’s Monastery, South Canaan, PA.)
  • “Nikolaj Velimirović.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org. (The death date and place; the initial burial at Libertyville; the 1991 return of relics to Lelić; the two feast-days.)
  • Serbian Times. “Today We Honor Nikolaj of Žiča: On this day, Bishop Velimirović’s relics were transferred from the U.S. to the Lelić Monastery.” serbiantimes.info. (The 1991 translation of the relics to Lelić and its 3 May commemoration.)
  • “Nicholas (Velimirović) of Žiča.” OrthodoxWiki, orthodoxwiki.org. (The burial and translation and the feast-days.)
  • Byford, Jovan. Denial and Repression of Antisemitism: Post-Communist Remembrance of the Serbian Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović. Budapest–New York: Central European University Press, 2008. (The 1991 reburial within the post-communist rehabilitation.)