Northern Kosovars Reject Government Authority

In a recent referendum criticized by both the European Union and the Serbian government northern Kosovo's ethnic Serb majority has overwhelmingly rejected the authority of the independent Kosovar government. The Kosovar Parliament downplayed the referendum's results, which saw 99.7% of northern Kosovo's 40,000 Serbs voting against the Albanian-dominated Kosovar government in Pristina, whilst the Serbian government criticized them as harmful to Serbian interests, which under the leadership of Serbian President Boris Tadic have been focused on developing a dialogue with the Kosovar government aimed to allowing for Serbian membership in the EU. More here.

Serbian FM Calls for Preservation of Orthodox Monuments in Kosovo

In his address to the recent UNESCO General Conference Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic presented the Serbian government's opinion that Kosovo's Serbian Orthodox monuments cannot be transferred to the ownership of the independent Kosovar government since the preservation of Kosovo's rich Serbian heritage conflicts with the new state's efforts to emphasize its Albanian identity. More here.

Serbian Orthodox Seminary to Reopen in Kosovo

The Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Raska and Prizren has announced that reconstruction of the diocesan seminary in Prizren has begun and that it will be reopened in the future. The seminary was one of the many institutions of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo destroyed following the region's takeover by NATO. More here.

Kosovo's Cemeteries in Poor State

The Kosovo-Metohija mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has released a report on the state of the breakaway region's Serb cemeteries, which receive little to no attention from local authorities and are in an increasingly poor condition. Of the 392 cemeteries in central and southern Kosovo surveyed in the report 229 were listed as being in a poor or bad condition. More here.

Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Supports Northern Kosovar Roadblocks

Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilovic) of the Serbian Orthodox Church has spoken in defense of the right of northern Kosovo's Serbs to maintain their political and economic ties with Serbia in the face of opposition from the Kosovar government and the international community, which want the borders between Kosovo and Serbia to be placed under the control of KFOR and the Kosovar government. Patriarch Irinej expressed his support for Kosovo's Serbs after festal services in honor of the Protection in Pech, Kosovo. More here and here.

KFOR Soldiers Injured in Northern Kosovo Clashes

Four KFOR soldiers have been injured in clashes with northern Kosovo's ethnic Serb majority, which is resisting the efforts of the Kosovar government to instate its control over the region and its borders with Serbia. More here.

New Bishop of Lipljan Consecrated in Pech

This past Sunday Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilovich) and several other hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church consecrated Archimandrite Jovan (Culibrk) as Bishop of Lipljan at the seat of the Patriarchate in Pech, Kosovo. More (in Serbian) here.

Serbian President Chooses Northern Kosovo Over Candidacy for EU Membership

Pro-European Union (EU) Serbian President Boris Tadic has rejected recent calls for his government to dismantle the administrative structures it has maintained in largely Serb northern Kosovo, saying that Serbia will accept delays in its acceptance as a candidate for EU membership as the price for maintaining its interests in Kosovo. More here.

Prizren Diocese Supports KFOR-Serbia Interim Agreement

The Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Raska and Prizren has appealed to its flock in largely Serb northern Kosovo to support the interim agreement reached between the Serbian government and the KFOR over the management of the border crossings in the region between Kosovo and Serbia, arguing that support of the agreement will return peace to northern Kosovo while also displaying the trust of the area's residents in Serbia. More (in Serbian) here.

Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Opposes Partition of Kosovo

Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Irinej (Gavrilovic) has rejected calls for the partition of Kosovo between an independent Albanian-controlled state and the Serb enclave in northern Kosovo, which would remain part of Serbia. The patriarch's opposition was not based on the hope of guaranteeing the freedoms and security of Serbs in an independent Kosovo, but rather on the reincorporation of all of Kosovo into Serbia. More here.

Prizren Bishop Calls for Calm in Northern Kosovo

Bishop Teodosije of Raska and Prizren has called on the Kosovar authorities and his flock in northern Kosovo to refrain from resorting to violence in the wake of fighting over the control of border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia, saying that all of the outstanding issues between the Serbian and Kosovar governments should be resolved by negotiation. More (in Serbian) here.

Serbia, Kosovo Tensions Rise

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo rose to new levels overnight as Kosovar police launched attacks intended to seize control of border posts in northern territories still controlled by the surviving remnants of Kosovo's Serb minority. More here.

Foundations of Kosovar Monastery Damaged

Excavation works approved by Kosovar authorities have undermined the hillside beneath the historic Monastery of Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Zociste, Kosovo, and its cemetery and placed the site at risk of collapse. The site, like many other Serbian Orthodox holy places in Kosovo, is theoretically protected by the KFOR. Despite protests from both the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Raska and Prizren and the representation of the European Union in Kosovo the excavation works have yet to be stopped. More here.

Criminal Charges Initiated Against Former Bishop Artemije of Prizren

On the basis of charges brought forward by the Serbian Orthodox Church the Serbian public prosecutor for Belgrade has initiated criminal proceedings against former Bishop Artemije (Radosavljevic) of Raska and Prizren. Among the charges brought against the former bishop are the embezzlement of millions of euros intended for the renovation of Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries in Kosovo, the acquisition of properties without the approval of the appropriate central ecclesiastical authorities, and the repair of private properties not owned by the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren. More (in Serbian) here.

Serbia Protests Reclassification of Kosovar Monuments as 'Byzantine Albanian'

The Serbian government is blocking a Kosovar initiative in UNESCO to reclassify historic Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches in Kosovo as 'Byzantine Albanian' monuments. The move comes as the Kosovar regime has undertaken a sweeping rewrite of its history, recasting the founder of the Serbian Empire and the nobleman who killed Ottoman Padishah Murat during the Battle of Kosovo Polje (among others) as ethnic Albanians. More here.

St. Lazar the Tsar-Martyr

Joyous feast! St. Lazar, also known as Lazarus, is remembered primarily for his leadership of the Serbian armies at the Battle of Kosovo Polje that saw the destruction of much of the Serbian nobility and the occupation of what was left of the old Serbian Empire by the Ottoman Turks. St. Lazar first rose to prominence at the court of the last Serbian emperor, Tsar Stephen Uros V, after whose death the Saint assumed leadership of what was left of the Serbian Empire with the titles prince and autocrat, hence the common references to him as also being a tsar or 'caesar.'

Although St. Lazar labored to unify and strengthen free Serbia, his defeat and martyrdom at Kosovo Polje left Serbia without strong leadership or enough troops to continue the resistance to Ottoman encroachment and thus the battle, which equally devastated both sides, led to the extension of the Turkish Yoke to Serbia.

St. Lazar's incorrupt relics were translated from a church near Kosovo Polje to the Ravanica Monastery, which he had founded during his reign, two years after the battle in 1391. When the Ottoman Turks destroyed the Ravanica Monastery in the late 1600s the Saint's relics were removed to Srem and then to Belgrade during World War II. In 1989 on the 600th anniversary of his martyrdom St. Lazar's relics were again translated, this time to their former resting place at the Ravanica Monastery.

More on St. Lazar's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

Foundations of 14th Century Kosovar Church Damaged

The Eparchy of Raska and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church has reported that the historic 14th Church of St. Cyriaca in Potkaljaja, a suburb of Prizren, has had its foundations damaged by new construction in its vicinity. More here.

Northern Kosovar Church Desecrated

A Serbian Orthodox church in the northern Kosovar village of Samodreza has been broken into by local Kosovar Albanians and used as a toilet and garbage dump. The church had been vandalized in the past, but so far no one has been caught or prosecuted for the damages. More here.

Kosovar Orthodox Bishop Speaks Out Against Partition of Kosovo

Bishop Teodosije (Sibalic) of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and southwestern Serbia has spoken out against proposals by Serbian politicians that Kosovo be partitioned to allow its primarily Serb enclaves to remain part of Serbia, saying that this would result in Kosovo's remaining Serbs suffering even more than they already have. More here.

Visoki Decani Monastery Elects New Abbot

With the participation of its former abbot, Bishop Teodosije (Sibalic) of Raska and Prizren, the brotherhood of Kosovo's Visoki Dechani Monastery of the Ascension has elected its deputy superior, Archimandrite Sava (Janjic), as its new abbot. Axios! More (in Serbian) here.