Archimandrite Mihajlo: There are few of us left in Pristina, but still enough to make it a Serbian city

In the Church of St. Nicholas in Pristina, with a liturgy attended by the displaced Serbs who had to leave the city in 1999, as well as the Serbs from the surrounding towns, the temple patron’s day was celebrated today.

The liturgy was served by the abbot of the Holy Archangels monastery, Archimandrite Mihajlo, with the concurrence of the priests of the Eparchy of Raska and Prizren.

Archimandrite Mihajlo said in his speech that, although a small number of Orthodox Serbs remained in Pristina, it was still enough for it to be a Serbian place.

"Just as we humans renew ourselves when we fall into sin and temptation, with God's help for our salvation, God gives us strength. So this temple was destroyed and burned, and we thought that there would never be life in it, but we are witnesses that it exists and that as long as there are many of us here, even though there is a small number of people, Orthodox Serbs, who live in this city, it is still a sufficient number for it to be a Serbian city and place, and for this to be a place where our sisters and brothers gathering to celebrate the Lord, to serve the liturgy," Archimandrite Mihajlo said.

He added that we were witnessing the times we live in and that what happened in the world affected everyone.

"We can protect ourselves, run away, or sit on the sidelines, but we are witnesses of all the suffering and all the torments. In this time, brothers and sisters, we have to show if we are Christians, if we are on the Lord's way or we will go astray," Archimandrite Mihajlo added.

Dragan Radevic, a former resident of Pristina, says that he spent the best moments of his life in that city.

"In the last few years, I have been coming to Pristina all the time. I lived here from 1963 to 1999. That most beautiful period, and I know Pristina when it was just a small town around peonies to the modern city when we left it, which was huge, a rarely beautiful place to live. I will never regret that we had to leave, I will never regret that Pristina, which was full of good people. I am really touched, my heart hurts, it had to be like that, probably," Radevic said.

Slavica Milanovic left Pristina in 1999, and as she says, she would not be able to recognize the street where she used to live.

"Every year I come for the holiday. Pristina has changed a lot, a lot has been built, I wouldn't even recognize the street where I used to live if someone had dropped me off by plane. It's nice to be here today, my heart is full," Milanovic said.

Eighty-eight-year-old Ruzica Markovic attended the liturgy in Pristina today. As she said, her age did not prevent her from visiting monasteries and being in Pristina on that day.

"I lived on Suncani Breg for 40 years with my wife and two children. Now we are everywhere, but we are not lacking anything, we have managed to survive. We are a fighting people, we are hardy and patient," Markovic said.

After the liturgy, the celebratory cake was cut. This year's cake maker was Miodrg Zivic, who handed over the cake for the following year to Lazar Velic.

The Church of St. Nicholas in Pristina is located in the old historical part of the city on the elevated site of the former Varos Mahala, which was inhabited exclusively by Christians.

In the pogrom on March 17, 2004, Albanian extremists burned the church and demolished the dome. The valuable iconostasis, which was carved in walnut wood by the skilled hands of Debar craftsmen, was then completely burnt in the fire.

In the period from 2005 to 2008, the church was restored and conserved from the outside and inside, and the church yard was repaired and put back into operation.