The Holy Hierarchical Liturgy, which will be served by His Eminence Archbishop of Cetinje, Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Mr. Joanikije, with the clergy and faithful, will begin at 9 a.m.
Archaeological research carried out on the foundations of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Podlastva in 1984 resulted in the discovery of the remains of an early Christian place of worship from the 6th century, which made a great contribution to the study of medieval archaeology in those areas. The medieval center of spirituality in Grblja has received another spiritual vertical that has deeply tied it to the foundations of Christianity. Such a seemingly unexpected turn, where the place whose foundation was traditionally attributed to Emperor Dušan in 1350, gained even greater significance because its 15th-century existence has been confirmed by material evidence.
According to tradition, the monastery was built by Emperor Dušan in 1350. According to the same tradition, through that part of the Primorje region, staying briefly in the Lastovo church, from the nearby seashore, Saint Sava, the first Serbian Archbishop and founder of the Zeta Bishopric, set out for Mount Athos. The same tradition claims that Saint Sava passed through that place when he went to Jerusalem. There is also a tradition about the Grbalj origin of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović.
Since its inception, the Podlastva Monastery has been the spiritual and political center of Grblje, witnessing turbulent events related to the rebellions against the Venetians and the Turks, which reflected on the fate of the monastery.
A special testimony to its martyrdom is the new tomb of 80 killed people from Grblje, Main, Budvan, Pobor and Paštrović in Bar at the end of World War II (transferred and buried there in 1992 with the blessing of the Serbian Patriarch Pavle), as well as the suffering of the priest-martyr Varnava Bućan, abbot of Podlastva, who was killed after great torture in 1942 by the hands of his brothers. Taking all this into account, the Podlastva Monastery could rightfully bear the name "Monastery of the Martyr".
After its destruction in World War I, the monastery was consecrated by the then Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Gavrilo (Dožić), later the Serbian Patriarch, and 83 years later, in 2019, the newly renovated monastery, the chapel of the Holy Great Martyr Emperor Lazar of Kosovo, and the monastery dormitory were consecrated by the Serbian Patriarch Irinej of blessed memory.