Montenegro's Metropolitan Joanikiije (Lipovac) is commemorated today in the Serbian Orthodox Church. The future Metropolitan Joanikiije, Jovan, was born in Montenegro in 1890. He graduated from high school in Kotor in the coastal region of Montenegro. Then he went to the Orthodox theological school in the Croatian city of Zadar, then under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and finally to the philosophical faculty of Belgrade University. In 1912, he was ordained as a deacon and priest serving in a village in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1916, Fr. Jovan served as a reserve military chaplain and later became the parish rector in Petrovac. From October 30, 1922, Fr. Jovan taught at Cetinje's women's gymnasium and teacher's school. At the same time, he taught theology at the Cetinje Seminary. In 1925, he taught at the First Belgrade Gymnasium for men. On December 8, 1939, the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church elected the widowed Archpriest Jovan Lipovac, Bishop of Budimljan, vicar of the Serbian Patriarch Gabriel V (Dožić). On February 1, 1940, in the Rakovitsa monastery, Metropolitan Joseph (Tsviyovich) of Skopje tonsured Fr. John a monk. On February 11, 1940, he was consecrated as bishop in the cathedral church in Belgrade. By the decision of the Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) on December 11, 1940, Fr. Joanikiije was elected Metropolitan of Montenegro and Littoral. Thanks to Metropolitan Joanikiije's efforts during World War Two, the seminary in Montenegro's capital, Cetinje, remained the only operating SOC seminary. At his request, Italian occupation authorities liberated many prisoners, including clergy, from their concentration camps. Metropolitan Joanikiije was an adamant anticommunist. In his messages and sermons, he condemned the activities of communist Partisans. The Partisans declared him a traitor and collaborator. In November 1944, to avoid being captured by them, Metropolitan Joanikiije left westward Cetinje with 70 priests and five-six thousand people, mostly elderly and children. Near the place Zidani Most in Slovenia or already on the territory of Austria, they were captured by soldiers of the 1st Yugoslav Army. Most of them were massacred by Tito’s Partisans. Metropolitan Joanikiije and the priest Luka Vukmanovic (brother of one of the Yugoslav communist leaders) were transported to Serbia. There, Metropolitan Jovan was imprisoned in the city of Arandjelovac and, after torture, executed (according to one of the later testimonies, in June of 1945 in a ravine near Arandjelovac). Metropolitan Joseph (Tsviyovich), the temporary head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (Patriarch Gavrilo was imprisoned in Dachau during World War Two), tried to free Metropolitan Joanikiije, but to no avail. The headquarters of the 1st Yugoslav Army sent a message to the Montenegrin Metropolia on June 21, 1945: “We are sending you a panagia and a cross found on that bandit, the former Metropolitan Joanikiije. Death to fascism - freedom for the people!” After the collapse of Communist Yugoslavia in the 1990s, information began to appear about Metropolitan Jovan’s martyrdom, which, however, is difficult to verify. The place of his burial is unknown. On May 22, 1998, the Bishops' Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church glorified Metropolitan Joanikiije as a saint. The solemn rite of glorification occurred on May 21, 2000, in the cathedral of St. Savva of Serbia on Vracar in Belgrade.
Source:
Priestmonk Ignatii (Shestakov), “Ioannikii,” Pravolsavnaia Entsiklopedia. |
