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Spiritual renewal found its visible expression in the rebuilding of temples and monasteries, and even in those that were destroyed in the time of the Turks. These sanctuaries were renovated by the people with their metropolitan and priesthood the moment they renewed, resurrected their faith in God. Most importantly, all these shrines are in worship today. These are not dead buildings, but living spiritual gatherings of the faithful as they were in the time of old glory. About 600 shrines have been restored in three decades. It is just a sign that the spiritual renewal in Montenegro is God’s work. In the late 1990s, Montenegro was reduced to a dozen parish priests, and today there is no village that does not have its own parish priest!
Jovan Markuš, a friend and one of the closest collaborators of Blessed Metropolitan Amfilohije, published the Memorial on the occasion of thirty years as archbishop and twenty-five years of metropolitan service on the throne of Cetinje.
According to Markuš, the great influence in the spiritual age of Metropolitan Amfilohije was exerted by the venerable Father Justin Popović, a great theologian and clergyman of our Church, and the elder of Mount Athos, Paisija. The Archbishop of Cetinje spoke Greek, Russian, Italian, German, and French, while in his scientific work he used Ancient Greek, Latin, and Church Slavonic.
– After many years of opposition from the communist government, the metropolitan Amfilohije was enthroned on the throne of Cetinje at a very difficult time for the Metropolitanate de Montenegro and the Litoral and Orthodoxy in Montenegro in general. Fifty years of communist rule left spiritual devastation. Most of the churches and monasteries were neglected. The metropolitan had a small number of priests. After receiving the holy throne of the Metropolitan of Cetinje from the hands of the honorable Metropolitan Elder Danilo Dajković, who kept it and preserved it in difficult times, it was necessary to start almost anew: to restore churches and monasteries, appoint priests, return people to values original spirituals. That was not easy at all, because five decades of indoctrination in Montenegro could not be corrected like this, says Markuš.
THE HEAT OF AWAKENED FIREPLACES
The heat of the Montenegrin spiritual homes was turned on by Metropolitan Amfilohije, at risk of burns and burns. At the risk of failure. Because when you touch the embers, you will light the fire or put it out completely. We believe that the metropolitan was aware of this risk, as well as we are convinced that he was aware of what his predecessor wrote on the bishop’s throne, since “God turns the transgressor around,” said the clergy and monks of the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Litoral.
– ON THE BASIS of communist doctrine, essentially anti-Montenegrin and anti-Serbian, various spiritual deviations have appeared in the multiparty life of Montenegro. Aware of the role that the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Litoral played in the past, as the foundation of the spiritual being and builder of the State of Montenegro, although it was disputed and exposed to various complaints by the communist authorities and their ideological successors, before entering to the Cathedral of Cetinje, During his enthronement, he undertook the general renewal of the life of the Orthodox Church in Montenegro. The number of priests and monks was increasing day by day, and priority was given to the renewal of the clergy, for a simple reason: in the war and post-war period, when anti-Christian destructiveness, unprecedented in Montenegrin history, became strong , more than a hundred priests were killed. that is to say. almost two-thirds of the prewar clergy of the Metropolitanate de Montenegro y el Litoral, headed by the Hieromartyr Metropolitan Joanikije Lipovac.
Great attention was paid to the RENEWAL of the clergy with the aim that, as in the past, there would not be a smaller place in Montenegro, nor a larger town in which there would be a temple without a parish priest, says Markuš.
When he returned from Banat to his native Montenegro and stood on a piece of land in his Morača, the Archbishop of Cetinje woke up the sleeping Orthodox, raised them to their feet, and restored them to their ancestral faith.
– In the last two decades, Montenegro has been in an encounter and conflict with the Moravian prophet Amfilohije, and that is the most obvious proof that the people and the Church need a prophetic word – said Bishop Grigorije from Dusseldorf and from all over Germany . – That word is usually incomprehensible and painful, but healing. If not, would Montenegrin monasteries be full of life and prayer today? Would there be so many wonderful priests and believers in Montenegro? The prophet has always been misunderstood, but he is respected, and the ears of no one, except those who suppress them, cannot help but hear his word. Isn’t the metropolitan like that, misunderstood and yet respected? Prophets have always been killed, in various ways, with taunts, rebukes, persecutions, and various deaths, and they were never afraid, while others feared them.
TOMORROW: BISHOP, HERE IS MY SON!
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