A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Serbian Church In History - Popular Uprising Against the Turks

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POPULAR UPRISING AGAINST THE TURKS

All patriarchs belonging to Sokolovic family tended to have correct relationships with Turks. However, although general living conditions were somewhat easier than at the beginning of Turkish occupation, Patriarch Jovan Kantul (1529-1613, John) changed this previously established attitude of his predecessors since both he and the people in general recognised the fact that the nation was still clearly enslaved. It was thought that nothing but freedom gained through a popular uprisings could set things to the right track again. This attitude prevailed by the end of the 16th century and continued to be in effect until freedom was gained three centuries later.

In 1594 an uprising of Serbs occurred in the region of Banat. Rebels carried flags bearing icons of St. Sava. A similar uprising broke out in the vicinity of Pec, and one occurred in Herzegovina in 1597. All of these were brutally put down by Turks and were ended in a terrible bloodbath. St. Theodore, Bishop of Vrsac and leader of Banat rebels, was skinned alive. As a measure of retaliation one of Turkish local rulers, Sinnan Basha, ordered relics of St. Sava to be burned in Beograd on April 27th/May 10th 1594. Patriarch Jovan Kantul also paid a heavy price — he was executed in Constantinople in 1613.

Patriarch Pajsije Janjevac (1614-1647, Paysiye Yanyevats) realized that open rebellion could not set things right. He turned for aid to Imperial Russia which had for a while already been a source of literary (service books) and some financial support. As the head of the Church he worked earnestly to strengthen the faltering spirit of the nation through constant celebration of Liturgy and by intense writing. He wrote the biography of the last Serbian emperor, Uros, and composed a Service to him. He also wrote the Service to St. Symon (King Stefan Prvovencani).

Patriarch Gavrilo I (1648-1655, Gabriel) also died a martyr’s death whilst in Turkish captivity.


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Sasha Alexander (born Suzana S. Drobnjaković; May 17, 1973) is an American actress.

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On Divine Philanthropy

From Plato to John Chrysostom

by Bishop Danilo Krstic

This book describes the use of the notion of divine philanthropy from its first appearance in Aeschylos and Plato to the highly polyvalent use of it by John Chrysostom. Each page is marked by meticulous scholarship and great insight, lucidity of thought and expression. Bishop Danilo’s principal methodology in examining Chrysostom is a philological analysis of his works in order to grasp all the semantic shades of the concept of philanthropia throughout his vast literary output. The author overviews the observable development of the concept of philanthropia in a research that encompasses nearly seven centuries of literary sources. Peculiar theological connotations are studied in the uses of divine philanthropia both in the classical development from Aeschylos via Plutarch down to Libanius, Themistius of Byzantium and the Emperor Julian, as well as in the biblical development, especially from Philo and the New Testament through Origen and the Cappadocians to Chrysostom.

With this book, the author invites us to re-read Chrysostom’s golden pages on the ineffable philanthropy of God. "There is a modern ring in Chrysostom’s attempt to prove that we are loved—no matter who and where we are—and even infinitely loved, since our Friend and Lover is the infinite Triune God."

The victory of Chrysostom’s use of philanthropia meant the affirmation of ecclesial culture even at the level of Graeco-Roman culture. May we witness the same reality today in the modern techno-scientific world in which we live.