Veselin Kesich, Professor Emeritus of the New Testament at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, was born on this day in 1921. Fr. Viktorin Dobronravov was one of the leading supporters of Metropolitan Joseph of Petrograd in his opposition to Metropolitan Sergii (Stragorodskii) in the late 1920s. Fr. Viktorin had four children. The youngest, Zoia, was born in 1925. In 1937, Fr. Viktorin was executed by the NKVD in Leningrad. His wife Anna married a Josephite lay psychiatrist, Prof. Andreevsky. During War World II, the Andreevsky family and Zoia found their way to Riga and then to Germany. In America, Zoia married Milorad Trifunovich, graduated from Columbia University and became a professor at Barnard College. Andreevsky became a professor at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary. Vladyka Lavr mentioned her to me, and he also had special veneration for her father. His name was added to the ROCOR’s list of new martyrs and in 2004 the Russian Church glorified him as well. When I began classes at St. Vladimir’s Seminary in the fall of 2001, Prof. Kesich’s class on the Early Church was one of the first I took. When he learned that I commuted weekly from Jordanville to Yonkers, Prof. Kesich mentioned that he was friends with Trifunovich. I still consult my notes from this class, and Prof. Kesich’s lectures available under the title Formation and Struggles: the Birth of the Church AD 33-200 from SVS Press in the series The Church in History. I believe it was the last class he taught before retriment. “Born in Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Dr. Kesich finished the gymnasium in Banja Luka and started studies at Belgrade University. At the end of the Second World War he lived in a Displaced Persons Camp in Italy until he was selected to study theology at Dorchester College in England. In 1949, he came to New York to continue his studies at Columbia University, Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary, receiving his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1959… “[Having been teaching at St. Vladimir’s Seminary] when time permitted, he taught elective courses in Serbian Church History, which resulted in several journal articles and essays in books: ‘The Martyrdom of the Serbs: The Church in the Ustashe State, 1941–1945,’ ‘The Early Serbian Church as Described in the Earliest Serbian Biography,’ ‘Bosnia: History and Religion,’ and ‘Kosovo in the History of the Serbian Church.’ “Seminarians interested in scriptural studies, especially during the popular onset of Liberation Theology, historical reconstruction, and the secular Feminist Movement, appreciated Professor Kesich’s spiritually balanced and incisive critical analysis of these movements and trends. Memorable were his several articles in that regard, which were published in the Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Quarterly (SVSQ, now known as Saint Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, SVTQ): ‘The Historical Jesus—A Challenge from Jerusalem,’ ‘St. Paul: Anti-Feminist or Liberator?,‘ and ‘Paul—Ambassador for Christ, or Founder of Christianity?’ “Always Orthodox in his perspective and a willing witness to his faith, he participated as the Orthodox member of several ecumenical dialogues with Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and he also served as the President of the Orthodox Theological Society.”
Source: “Prof. Veselin Kesich,” www.oca.org |
