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AUTHOR:
DATE AND TIME:
07.10.2020. 21:56
Amfilohije, Photo: EPA
In the heart of the faithful people of Montenegro, a special place is occupied by the Cetinje Monastery and the relics that are kept in it: part of the honorary cross on which Christ was crucified and the right hand of Saint John the Baptist, but also objects valuable liturgical items, manuscripts, and printed books and icons.
-God could not give Cetinje a greater blessing than the hand of Juan Bautista- Metropolitan Amfilohije once said, who is currently recovering from the coronavirus.
His words reminded us once again of the incredible history of these priceless Christian relics.
Next to the hand of Saint John the Baptist, the one who baptized Jesus Christ, there is also a particle of the Holy Cross of the Lord, that is, a part of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified, while the icon of the Holy Mother of God Philermos is found in the Government House in the Blue Chapel.
Many have tried to get hold of these priceless relics, especially the hand of John the Baptist, who in 1484, for “safety”, the knights of the Order of John transferred from Rhodes to Malta.
It is no secret that he later changed several places of “residence”, in order to officially come into possession of Karadjordjevic from the hands of the Russian Romanov royal family after the October Revolution. Until the occupation of Yugoslavia and Karadjordjevic’s escape from the country, it was in the royal chapel in Dedinje.
Today it is unclear why Peter II Karadjordjevic did not take her with him to London, but instead left her in custody in Montenegro. During the war, Adolf Hitler personally tried to get to the sanctuary, but all his secret services could not discover the place where the sanctuary was hidden. Only after their release did one of the monks inform the police about a large Christian shrine hidden in the cells of the Ostrog Monastery.
From the safes of the UDBA the light was seen in October 1994, when the “hand that baptized Jesus Christ” was placed in the monastery of Cetinje. However, the act of returning to the church one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Christian relics did not stop the aspirations of many powerful people to take over these shrines.
The Order of the Knights of Malta does not hide this, but maintains very close contacts with the Montenegrin authorities with the same intention. Therefore, those familiar with the subject should not be surprised by the attempt to impose the Law of Religious Freedom, by which the regime of Milo Đukanović, among other material values, would come into possession of this priceless relic. However, the one who disposes it today (on behalf of the Serbian Orthodox Church) is the Metropolitan Amfilohije, and he “takes” it out of the ark of Saint Peter of Cetinje to the faithful to kiss them on the main religious festivals.
The faithful will also say that behind the great success of lithium, which shook the Milo Đukanović regime to defeat in the elections, is precisely the power of the sanctuary around which spears have been broken for many years.
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