His Eminence the Bishop of Budimljansko-Nikšić, Mr. Methodius served, on the holiday of the Third Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, on Friday, June 7, 2024, the Holy Bishop's Liturgy in the memorial temple, dedicated to today's holiday, which is the metoch of the Piva Monastery - Dolim.

Several priests and monks from the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral Eparchy and the Eparchy of Budimlja-Nikšić served together with the prayerful participation of the faithful.

The liturgy was accompanied by singing by the choir of the Venerable Mother Angelina from Nikšić.

Archpriest Predrag Šćepanović, archpriest vicar of Podgorica-Danilovgrad, addressed the gathered after reading the Holy Gospel.

He referred to the suffering of the new martyrs of Dol, who, on this day, in 1943, were killed by the Nazi Prince Eugen division, together with the Muslim Ustasha from the SS Handjar division. In memory of the suffering of 522 weaklings, of which 109 were children under the age of 15, this memorial temple was built in the suffering Doli, and in 2017 the Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church canonized the victims of the Nazi crime in Piva, in whose villages from 6 By June 12, 1943, 1,290 people from Pivlja were killed, including 549 children and youth under the age of 20.

"It is as if she who is still in heaven rebelled against the beauty of the Creator, who created the earth beautiful and everything was good, and that eternal struggle between good and evil as on the edge of a knife, she wanted the blood of the beer youth, that pure beer blood . A friend from Bjelopavlić told me that the infamous Princ Eugen division first killed 28 people in Frutko, butchered them, and then came here to take the blood of innocent victims in these beautiful places, the likes of which do not exist in this white world," he said about . Predrag, recalling that Meša Selimović, a Serb of the Muslim faith, said that words can be shared with everyone, but silence cannot be shared with everyone.

"These beer silences speak more than all the words in this world." In two days, 1280 victims, of which 107 were children, and, may the martyrs of Piva forgive me for mentioning them, because I will mention them for good because the most holy chalice, after the blood of Christ, was their blood, which is still crying out to heaven, but there is one even more terrible the murder of the victims of Piva, because it lasted first for 30 years until some kind of monument was erected, and then this magnificent temple, the martyr's temple that landed in Piva from Lovcen so that for all ages it will be remembered how baptized and enlightened Europe came here as an innocent Piva, who moved to the sky that spring to take from her what is most precious - her children".

"How many Jaglika Adžić there were, only God will know, He wrote them in the eternal monument and in the eternal book and in the nimbus of heavenly justice, but we were obliged to know their names before, but it is never too late." My soul was filled with joy this morning when I saw this young world who, from Plužine, set out on the path of martyrdom and suffering to show that evil and injustice can never triumph and that the innocent blood of Christians, as one father of the Church said, is the seed for new Christians. Therefore, let those forgive us for keeping silent for a long time, forgetting for a long time and for handing over and relativizing their sacrifice, well, some fascists killed anti-fascists. And today we loudly say that there is no more holy blood on this Serbian land than Piva and Velička and Jasenovačka and Prebilovačka and many others that we shed in the bloody Second World War. The nation that today in front of Europe and the world bears the stamp of a genocidal nation, but let it be, it is a short time, and the judgment of God that awaits me, the killers and the victims will be the righteous judgment where the martyrs of Piva, whose souls today rejoice to see the youth Plužine and other regions who came here to feel the breath of their inconsolable souls in these treetops, who waited for a long time so that their name would no longer be spoken in secret, so that we can boldly say that we are the descendants of the martyrs of Piva and Velika", said priest Šćepanović, adding that the entire Eparchy of Bishop Methodius was sprinkled with the blood of the most beautiful sons of this nation throughout the ages.

"They didn't kill only the Piva children of that time, they wanted to kill the spirit of Bai Pivljanin and Lazar Sočica and other great men of the Piva tribe, which in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, inscribed in the heavenly chronicles, and the Piva monastery and these wonderful and blessed people. May their blood and sacrifice call us to forgive, but not to forget, as said Patriarch German of blessed memory, and may their blood shed here in the spring of late 1943, and now who can hear their cries and their cries in silence. hair burning on the hearth called the orthodox faith and the pure source of the Serbian language.

New Martyrs of Piva, pray to God for us to come together, not to go after other people's names and advertising, after bright shops, and to forget the path of Saint Sava, Saint Prince Lazarus, Piva and Great Martyrs, because there is no other way. And you, the traveler, the intendant, the believer who came this morning, take in your eyes the beauty of this region of beer, because you will not find such beauty in the world, may their sacrifice be an incentive for us in these terrible times to be and remain what Patriarch Pavle said - people," Archpriest Predrag Šćepanović stated.

After the liturgy, His Holiness Bishop Methodija addressed the words of the archpastor's sermon, congratulating the feast of the martyrs of Piva.

"From Adam, through whom death entered the human race, it became an insurmountable wall and obstacle and an insoluble problem for the entire human race until the coming of Christ." Every place and every death is terrible, especially the death of innocent people and children. Christ and the Holy Trinity, God the Father with his Son and the Holy Spirit, no longer able to watch the human race suffer and perish, decided to do what Abraham and Isaac did not have to do, which is to sacrifice his son for salvation of the human race, and the Father sends the Son to suffer, the One who took human nature upon himself, took the essence of the man who rebelled against God, not participating in that rebellion, so that he would be identical with man in everything; he became incarnate in order to die and pass through the door of death and to be and dwell in that state in which every man lives from the beginning of the human race from Adam to the present day.

And not only did the Father hand Him over to suffer and die, but the entire human race also handed Him over. The Christians handed Him over to the Jews, betraying Him to Judas. The Jews handed Him over to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles handed Him over to death. if the human race were to be divided according to some theological division, the entire human race handed Him over to death. In the end, He himself, willingly agreeing to fulfill the Father's will and all that is ordered in the home order of the salvation of the human race, is read at every Liturgy and at a priest's prayer, giving himself up for the life of the world in the night in to which he was handed over. If Christ had not died, none of the people could have been resurrected. Places like this, such as Christ's Calvary and all places that resemble that place of suffering and death, would be a place to bypass and avoid. The human mind and reason can never meet that terrible concept and force of death, which is all-consuming, swallows everything, both young and old, both good and bad, both beautiful and ugly, everything that exists crumbles and grinds in its millstones and transforms into nothingness," said His Eminence.

Having become one of us, Christ died and entering, according to the words of His Holiness Bishop Methodius, into the space and place called Hades, where people come from Adam to his time, Hades rejoiced that he swallowed not only every man, but also the God-man.

"Having received Him into her womb, not being able to keep Him as God, she had to throw Him out and the gates of hell would collapse and be broken, and all those who lived in that state, Christ was with them and He is with them, as much as it is with us possible to understand, he preached the Gospel to them in a mysterious way. All those who only believed in Him passed from death to life. All places, like this terrible place, where it is impossible not to feel the all-consuming force of death. As is the case in Jasenovac, Prebilovci, Jadovno, Koriti, Veliki, Gornja Ržanica, all of Piva, all these villages, there is also a meeting in Brezni tomorrow, come and pray to God. And people were killed and died there, there will be a small consecration of the restored church, which the young generations rebuilt and built in their village, without waiting for the old to teach or lead them.

Nothing would be more desperate than a man to gather in such places and more senseless if Christ had not become incarnate and crucified on that terrible cross, which was a disgrace and shame for centuries, and then with His death on that same cross remained a life-giving force that transforms everything , resurrects and revives. Therefore, no man can live without sinning. Every man sins and no one is without sin, only Christ as the man of God is the only one without sin and thus we have no one to be angry with for everything that happens in our lives. That is why we should forgive, and the one who is aware of what death means and that it devours everything, and those who were demonic servants and killed innocent people in this place were also swallowed up by death. The earth leveled them together with the innocent victims they killed and the innocent blood they spilled in these valleys," said Bishop Methodije.

Only those who kill another man did not kill that man, but, the Bishop said, they killed themselves.

"They killed their soul and that is the most terrible thing of all." Earthly, temporary, bodily death is transitory. Christ passed through that door and was resurrected, appeared to us, and today he appeared to us at the Holy Liturgy, and in the Holy Gifts and through Him we partook of the living God and the God-man, believing in what He preaches to us, following in His footsteps and words , but those who have received eternal death should cry and weep for them, and the God of prayer does not like it. These terrible places remind us of that.

The holiday is a celebration of life, it is not dancing, drinking, rejoicing without meaning, but we celebrate the life that Christ gave us and in this place he gives a bright life, and this holy family is a clear sign of that and a symbol that shows Christ's victory of life over death. That is the meaning of our gathering today, not to continue the vicious cycle of evil and to multiply it, but to deeply understand what the meaning of this life is and how to obtain the grace of God, how to do everything to make this place called earth a little nicer place to live.

They mentioned these days, reminding themselves of Abba Justin of Saint Čelijski, how he said that we have no right in this world to be sad and mournful while the Holy Liturgy is being served in it, while God is present among us. While He is with us and in us, while we are with Him, we will follow the path of our ancestors, the martyrs of Piva, waiting for that day to see the bright face of Christ, surrounded by all the choirs of angels and heavenly powers, who have joined them, already, among all the saints , and today's martyrs of Piva whom we celebrate," said Bishop Metodije of Budimlja-Nikšić.

After the Holy Liturgy, there was a cultural and spiritual program, which is traditionally organized by the Eparchy of Buda and Nikšić and the Plužine Center for Culture, and a dinner of love.

The slavonic offerings were consecrated and the slavonic cake was broken. The host of this year's celebration, together with the Church Board, was Nenad Ćalasan.

The meeting was attended by the presidents of the Nikšić Municipality and SO Marko Kovačević and Nemanja Vuković, the president of the Plužine Municipality Slobodan Delić and his associates, and the ambassador of the Russian Federation in Montenegro Vladislav Maslenikov.

Source: Diocese of Budimljansko-Nikšić