With the blessing of Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, Mr. Joanikije, from the plateau of the Podgorica Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, today, May 10 at 5 p.m., the twenty-third traditional pilgrimage of believers to the Ostrog Monastery began. In order to pay homage to St. Basil, they will walk about 40 kilometers to the Ostrog shrine.

The organizer – Archpriest Predrag Šćepanović, M.Sc., parish priest and hierarchal vicar of Podgorica-Danilovgrad, said that this year over 3,000 people, mostly young people, are participating in the procession: “This is a magnificent procession, with a prayer to St. Basil of Ostrog for health, joy and peace in souls, hearts, and in the whole world!”

He pointed out that in addition to the blessings of Saint Basil of Ostrog and Metropolitan Joanniki, he also went to the tomb of the late Metropolitan Amfilohije to bless this procession, as he had done when it first started exactly twenty-three years ago.

Every year, tens of thousands of believers come to the shrine in Ostrog to ask for help and blessings from Saint Basil, and this year was no different.

Gojko Bošković, who is seventy years old, also set off on foot from Bar this year to pay homage to Saint Basil and joined the procession in Podgorica, and he has been doing so for thirty-nine years, according to Archpriest Predrag. Eighty-nine-year-old Luka Bošković also set off from the plateau of the Temple

Archpriest Predrag also greeted many people who joined the procession from other cities and towns in Montenegro.

Also, this year, everyone on the Temple plateau was addressed by the High Revival Abbess Mother Zlata, Abbess of the Monastery of the Mother of God of the Three Hands in Belgrade, who began this pilgrimage back in 2002 when only six pilgrims took part in that first pilgrimage.

“Christ the Easter! In 2002, we set out with just a few people, with the blessing of Metropolitan Amfilohije, and here are how many of you there are now. When we set out, there were little children, now you are young men, men, as many as there are. Then the Metropolitan blessed us to set out from the Duga Monastery, it was a 60-kilometer journey without vans or security, we walked like that for three years, and then he said: That’s a long way, there are people who are sick, let’s start the procession from the Cathedral to Ostrog. And now we can freely call it the procession from Metropolitan Amfilohije to St. Basil!” – said the Most Reverend Mother Zlata from the plateau.

During this prayer walk, Archpriest Predrag Šćepanović and the other participants stopped briefly in front of the Montenegrin Penitentiary in Spuž and invited them to greet the employees of the Penitentiary, because, as he pointed out, thanks to their hospitality and good cooperation over many years, hundreds of prisoners who wish to do so have the opportunity throughout the year to receive consolation, confess and partake in the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Text, photo: Boris Musić