Karlovac, Croatia, July 18, 2023
Photo: eparhija-gornjokarlovacka.hr
The solemn act of canonization of more than 75 saints of the Karlovac Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church was celebrated yesterday.
His Grace Bishop Nikodim of Dalmatia, Bishop Nektarije of Jegar, and the local hierarch Bishop Gerasim of Gornji Karlovac celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Karlovac, Croatia, yesterday for the feast of the Hieromartyr Sabbas of Gornji Karlovac and those martyred with him, reports the Serbian Orthodox Church’s Televizija Hram.
During the small entrance, the recent decision of the Bishops’ Council of the Serbian Church was read out on the canonization of the Holy Hierarch Danilo (Jakšić), 73 hieromartyrs of Gornji Karlovac who suffered during WWII, and the children who died in the Jastrebarsko and Sisak concentration camps in 1942-1943.
Photo: eparhija-gornjokarlovacka.hr
The troparion to the new saints was sung out as the bishops blessed the people with an icon of the new saints.
After the blessing of the slava bread and kollyva in honor of St. Sabbas, the patron saint of the diocese, Bp. Gerasim offered a word of congratulations:
The Church of God is full of holy martyrs and confessors because the Church of God rests on the blood of martyrs. Likewise, our diocese, although it did not produce any of the venerable fathers, produced many holy martyrs. The Church has always lived the life of the people and has never left its people in difficult times, as evidenced by today’s feast. Through the Hieromartyr Sabbas and the other priests who suffered with him, we also celebrate all the other martyrs from among the faithful and God-loving people.
Photo: eparhija-gornjokarlovacka.hr
And Bp. Nikodim said in his word:
We should know, brothers and sisters, that martyrs are the greatest ornament, the greatest gift that a nation can give to its Lord. Because they honored and followed the words of today’s Gospel: Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also, and that’s why they gave their lives for the sake of the Lord. We must also choose to make the Lord our treasure, so that our heart may always be with the Lord.
The Serbian Church also celebrated the canonization of St. Nedeljko Streličić, a victim of the communist authorities, in May.
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St. Danilo was born on the feast of the Nativity in 1715 in Srpska Moravice. He joined a monastery as young boy, and at the age of 19, he was ordained as a hierodeacon then hieromonk. He was known as an ardent defender of Orthodoxy against Uniatism.
In 1750, he was elected as the Bishop of Gornji Karlovac, to the great delight of the people, and consecrated on November 4, 1751.
Despite the interference of the Habsburg authorities of that time, St. Danilo managed carry out significant reconstruction work at his native Gomirje Monastery. He also built an icon painting school, a home for priests, and the Cathedral of the Entrance of the Theotokos Into the Temple.
St. Danilo faced persecution from both Viennese authorities and the Catholic church during his episcopal reign, but he maintained his fiery Orthodox faith and greatly inspired the people.
After a short illness, he peacefully reposed in the Lord on January 27, 1771, at the age of 55, in Plaški, Croatia. He was buried in the cathedral in Plaški.
The people of Karlovac have always remembered him as a humble and ascetic monk, as a philanthropist, and as a saint.
It was initially thought that the tomb of the hierarchs of Gornji Karlovac was destroyed by the Ustaše in 1941, but guided by archival documents, it was possible to local St. Danilo’s grave on the right side of the narthex of the Plaški Cathedral.
His memory is celebrated on January 27/February 9.
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