A traditional St. Vitus Day assembly was held at the Podlastva Monastery in Grblje, where according to tradition the Holy Great Martyr Lazar, the Serbian Emperor, was born.
The Divine Liturgy was presided over by Archimandrite Benedict, abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael on Miholjska Prevlaka, with the concelebration of numerous clergy.
Father Benedict was concelebrated by: abbot Rafailo of Podmain, abbot Kozma of Režević, cross-bearing archpriests Nemanja Krivokapić and Jovan Rajak; archpriest Justin, abbot of the Podlastva Monastery; archpriests: Aleksandar Lekić, Mijajlo Backović, Branko Bogojević and Miloš Stanisavljević from Kraljevo; priests: Igor Pešikan, Milivoje Bakić and Lazar Krstić; Hieromonk Ilija from the Podlastva Monastery; Protodeacon Dr. Damjan Bozić from the Belgrade Cathedral Church, Deacon Ognjen Boričić from Cetinje and Hierodeacon Kalistrat from the Podmaine Monastery.
The sisters from the Rustovo Monastery officiated at the Liturgy.
Numerous monks and faithful from various parts of the country and abroad also took part in the liturgical celebration of Vidovdan in the Podlastva Monastery.
After the Gospel reading, Protopriest-Stavrophor Nemanja Krivokapić, the Archbishop's Vicar of Kotor, addressed the congregation with a speech.
"Almighty God who created this world and us in this world and everything that exists, that God came to earth to teach us how to gain the eternal Kingdom and tells us this seemingly simple sentence: - Let us love one another. That in this way the eternal Kingdom may be gained. In another place he says: - That there is no greater love than to lay down our lives for our neighbors. On this day when we celebrate Vidovdan, one of the most important holidays for us Serbs, when we remember the events that took place on this day - the Battle of Kosovo and our glorious ancestors, Holy Tsar Lazar and all the Kosovo martyrs, we also remember that our ancestors certainly knew about these words of Christ. Not only did they know, but they held them deep in their hearts, and then when life demanded it of them, they showed it - that they truly lived that way. They laid down their lives for their people, their homeland, their neighbors,” said the archbishopric governor of Kotor, Archpriest Nemanja Krivokapić.
He added that Vidovdan also reminds us of the Kosovo Vow left to us by our glorious ancestors, which is to always choose good, not evil.
"Choosing always eternal, imperishable, saving thoughts and deeds that lead us to the eternal Kingdom. The Kosovo Covenant is not a myth, but a way of life that has been given and proposed to us. First of all, by the words of Christ, and then confirmed by the lives of our ancestors. Love for one another. Therefore, the Kosovo Covenant is not only in the Battle of Kosovo, but in everyday life. Whenever we choose good over evil, when we choose truth, justice, love, that is the Kosovo Covenant. This is what our glorious ancestors Tsar Lazar and the Kosovo martyrs teach us today. They do not actually teach us, but rather remind us of what Saint Sava taught us before them with his Saint Sava Covenant. How rich we Serbs are! We have both the Saint Sava and the Kosovo Covenant. And what is a covenant? It is a covenant between God and people, through God's love for us but also our love for God, through our deeds," concluded Father Nemanja.
After the prayer from the ambo, the slava offerings were blessed and the slava cake was broken.
Then, in front of the memorial ossuary where 80 people from Grbl, Krtol, Mainj, and Budva were buried, who suffered at the hands of their brothers in November 1944 in Stari Bar, a memorial service was held for all those who suffered for the Holy Cross and the Fatherland, from Kosovo to the present day.
After the memorial service, Archpriest Mijajlo Backović, the parish priest of Tivat, addressed the gathering with a speech.
"Many say: 'Vidovdan is a sad day. The table is monastic, not princely. There is no rejoicing, no singing.' But the opposite should be done, dear brothers and sisters, in modesty, of course, but in great resurrected joy. Today, Prince Lazar presents his head before his Creator, closing, as Father Justin said, 'the holy Gospel of the Nemanjićs, from Saint Sava and his covenant,' as Father Nemanja said in his sermon, 'up to Emperor Lazar'. Everything that Saint Sava signed with Christ in the name of the Serbian people, Emperor Lazar fulfilled and rounded off that Nemanjić Gospel by the way of Golgotha. By offering himself as a sacrifice, his people and his army. By offering himself to the Golgotha ​​of the Serbian people, but to the Golgotha ​​of suffering where we know that the resurrection will come," he said between the rest was Father Mijajlo.
The festive gathering continued in a spiritual atmosphere of fraternal meetings and conversations, with a service for all gathered on this wonderful holiday in the ancient Grbljana sanctuary.
The memorial ossuary in the Podlastva monastery, in front of which a memorial service is served every year on St. Vitus Day, was erected in 1992.
On the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, May 24, 1992, the bones of 80 people from Grbljana, Main, Budvan, Pobor and Paštrović were buried there. These innocent victims were killed without trial or sentence on the night of November 24/25, 1944 in Stari Bar by the Second and Fourth Battalions of the First Boka Shock Brigade.

The requiem mass was celebrated by the late Serbian Patriarch Pavle, with the late Metropolitan Amfilohije and 13 other Serbian bishops.

In his speech after the funeral, the late Patriarch Pavle said, among other things:

"Kissing these humiliated and suffering bones of our brothers, who were killed in vain by the hand of their brothers, we bow to human dignity, we pay our debt to them and to the justice of God, so that these bones may be an eternal warning to us and our generations that no brother should ever raise his hand against his brother again. We bury them not to be a call to revenge, but in the understanding of the eternal truth that there is no idea or ideology so significant that even a single drop of innocent, spilled brotherly blood should be sacrificed for them."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MuQxPMWcPM&t=2s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUyv8CqsAho

O. B.

Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral