09 — Glorification and Legacy
The Serbian Orthodox Church’s glorification of Nikolai as a saint in 2003, and a sober assessment of a towering and genuinely contested figure — his stature and his controversy held together honestly, as the whole collection has tried to do.
This closing section covers the act by which the Serbian Church made Nikolai a saint — the decision of the Holy Assembly of Bishops in May 2003 and the establishment of his feasts — and then steps back for an honest assessment. Nikolai is at once one of the most beloved and influential churchmen of modern Orthodoxy and the subject of one of the most serious controversies attaching to any modern canonization. The final file holds both together, neither dissolving the saint into the controversy nor the controversy into the saint.
Files
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| glorification-2003.md | The Serbian Church’s glorification in May 2003; the feasts of 18 March and 3 May; his veneration |
| legacy-and-assessment.md | His towering stature and his contested reception, held together honestly; the memory-politics of the canonization |
See Also
- 06 — The Controversy — the contested record the assessment must hold together with the veneration
- 07 — Émigré Years in America — the reburial and rehabilitation that led to glorification