Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Traveling to Trebinje, Herzegovina

Early Friday morning, I flew to Belgrade to meet with my bishop, Bishop Maxim. In the morning, I visited with my friend, Rastko Jovic, who is also working on his PhD with the same professor as I am, and we discussed our work. In the afternoon, I met up with Bishop Maxim and we left on a pilgrimage which would take us to Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Kosovo.

First, we took a short flight from Belgrade to Tivat, Montenegro, a beautiful coastal resort town. We were picked up at the airport by a faithful lay person from the city of Trebinje, Herzegovina and taken there, a drive of about 1.5-2 hours. The fastest route involves a short ferry ride near Tivat, and the photo above is of the ferry coming to pick us up.

First, we were taken into the city of Trebinje, where Bishop Maxim was greeted by Bishop Grigorije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina. We were taken inside the newly constructed cathedral (photo of the apse above) and then next door to the newly constructed diocesan headquarters and episcopal residence for a brief visit with Bishop Grigorije.

We then drove the few miles over to Tvrdos Monastery, where Bishop Maxim was greeted by Bishop Atanasije Yevtich and the monastery's brotherhood. We venerated inside the church, which is built on the foundations of a 5th century church, and then went to eat and visit with Bishop Atanasije.

I was fortunate enough even to get to speak with Bishop Atanasije about my own PhD research and get his opinion. (See photos below.)

For more photos, click here.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Last year, I had the great grace to be able to stay for two weeks at Tvrdos monastery. Bishop Atanasije , when I first met him, whopped me on top of my head and called me a rude American, because I had a long prayer rope in my hand when I asked for his blessing. He told me through a translator that Liturgy was for us to pray together not individually. I miss Tvrdos and the Bishop. He is a great man and the monks there treated me wonderfully.