Protosingel Petar, the Abbot of the monastery of Djurdjevi Stupovi (The Pillars of St. George) near Prizren, and Abbot of the monastery of Zociste.
Kosovo Monks: Serbian Flag Stays
Belgrade daily Blic reports that brotherhood of Zociste Monastery in Kosovo-Metohija province has refused to remove the Serbian flag from their belltower after being asked to do so by the Austrian contingent of international forces deployed in the province. The request to remove the flag was made after Albanian threats that if the monks do not comply, the monastery would be attacked again.
Bishop Artemije of Raska and Prizren said that “if someone is bothered by the flag, then they should intervene” but that the monks would not remove the flag. Members of Austrian KFOR which is supposed to protect the monastery advised the monks early yesterday morning that the Albanians are threatening to attack just rebuilt monastery again, stating that it is KFOR’s task “to protect those who are threatened and to calm those who are creating disturbance” in Serbian province. They then requested that the flag be removed.
Bishop Artemije: This is Serbia
“If Kosovo Albanians have the right to display the flag of another country - Albania - on their homes and huts, why would Serbs not have the same right to do so on their monastery,” said Bishop Artemije. He added that Zociste Monastery is located in its own country of Serbia, and therefore has the right to display Serbian flag on its tower.
According to Tanjug, his Grace Artemije pointed out that “it is Kfor’s job to protect the monastery, and not to meddle in the issue of the flag.”
“This is a message to expelled Serbs whose houses have allegedly been rebuilt in Zociste. This is a message not to return, because if such a violence is applied on monks, what can returnees hope for if they came to live in the same village with ethnic Albanians as neighbors,” Bishop Artemije said.
Violent Past of the Medieval Holy Shrine
Zociste Monastery was pillaged, burned and ravaged by the Albanian terrorists on September 13-14, 1999, and soon after completely dynamited. The monastery of Holy Cosmas and Damian is located in the village Zociste, 5 kilometers east of Orahovac, near Prizren. The builder of the monastery is unknown, nor is it known when was it exactly built, but it is first mentioned in the Charter of St. King Stefan of Decani in 1327. Oldest preserved frescoes are from the 14th century.
Venerating icons of SS Cosmas and Damian in Zociste Monastery.
During the 1998-1999 war against Albanian Muslim insurgents, the monastery was attacked many times by the KLA terrorists. In summer of 1998, Albanian terrorists captured the monks along with some twenty elderly residents who were sheltered within the monastery, hiding from the Albanian thugs. They were freed only after the International Red Cross intervened. At that time almost all of the Serbian villages around the monastery, except Velika Hoca, were purged of Serbs. After the war has ended in 1999, Albanians have destroyed the remaining Serbian houses, purging the few Serbs that survived the war and lived through to the end of NATO aggression. In the ensuing pogrom, where everything Serbian was targeted for destruction, the medieval Zociste Monastery was also razed to its foundations. Monastery brotherhood was forced to leave back in June of 1999, moving to the monastery Duboki Potok at the north of the Serbian province.
The Only Rebuilt Shrine Out of Over 150 Destroyed by Albanian Muslims in Kosovo Province
Finally, three years ago the monastery elder, Father Petar (Ulemek), received the blessing of Bishop Artemije to begin rebuilding the Zociste holy shrine. The consecration of the renewed church and the return of the holy relics of Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian after eight years took place on Saturday, the monastery patron saint’s day, and gathered some 3,000 Serbs from all parts of Kosovo province and central Serbia. Five monks live in the monastery.
Zociste Monastery is currently unique in Kosovo and Metohija in that it is the only restored and consecrated holy shrine out of the approximately 150 that have been destroyed (since) 1999. As well, it was restored largely through individual donations, and unique in that since the first day of the brotherhood’s return, it has also received visits from local Albanians who say that they “respect the Unmercenary Physicians.”
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