Lelić, Serbia, May 4, 2026
Photo: spc.rs
His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia led the Divine Liturgy on May 3, marking the feast of the transfer of the relics of St. Nikolai (Velimirović) of Žiča and Ohrid at Lelić Monastery, the endowment of the great hierarch and the site where his holy relics are venerated.
St. Nikolai is revered as one of the great American Orthodox saints, having served as a missionary in the United States and spent his final years at St. Tikhon’s Monastery and Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, where he reposed in 1956.
The Patriarch was joined by numerous hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church, along with clergy, monastics, representatives of the Serbian government and military, and several thousand faithful, the Serbian Church reports.
Photo: spc.rs
During the Liturgy, Pat. Porfirije elevated Abbot Georgije of Lelić Monastery to the rank of archimandrite.
The celebration also marked the consecration of the newly completed House of St. Nikolai, a spiritual, educational, and cultural center that includes a museum dedicated to the saint, a library with reading room, conference hall, and amphitheater.
In his homily on the Gospel reading about the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda, the Patriarch drew parallels between the man who had been sick for 38 years and modern humanity. He noted that the paralytic was “alone and helpless, surrounded by people who were focused exclusively on themselves, like today’s contemporary man filled with egotism, self-love and selfishness, without love for neighbor.”
Photo: spc.rs
The Patriarch emphasized that while a man can’t heal himself, “if we have faith, hope and desire, then we have Christ the God-Man who heals all human infirmities.”
Speaking of St. Nikolai, Pat. Porfirije said he was a saint “in whom prayers and thoughts were united, mutually distant ideologies and the faith of ordinary people with academic theological teaching.” He noted that the saint’s return from a distant land made his native region “a new Pool of Bethesda and a place of spiritual healing.”
“We’re all children of St. Nikolai, who united prayer and thought, East and West, who gathered people into one saving Christian faith,” the Patriarch said. “Let us remain gathered in faith, hope and love, glorifying God together with St. Nikolai and all the saints.”
Photo: spc.rs
His Grace Bishop Isihije of Valjevo presented the Order of St. Nikolai to both Pat. Porfirije and Abbot Georgije for their selfless love shown to the holy sites and the memory of St. Nikolai.
Bp. Isihije recalled the return of St. Nikolai’s relics to Lelić exactly 35 years ago: “That transfer of relics wasn’t just the physical return of a body. It was the spiritual resurrection of our Serbia. His return was a sign that God doesn’t forget His faithful and that every tear in exile turns into a Heavenly pearl. He didn’t come here to rest, but to awaken us.”
Following the celebration at Lelić, Pat. Porfirije visited Ćelije Monastery, where he venerated the relics of St. Justin (Popović).
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