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==Life==
Archimandrite Justin was born to pious and God-fearing parents, [[Protopresbyter|Proto]] Spyridon and [[presbytera|Protinica]] Anastasia Popović, in Vranje, South Serbia, on the [[Annunciation|Feast of Annunciation]], [[March 25]], 1894 (April 7 by the [[New Calendar]]). At [[baptism]], he was given the name ''Blagoje'', after the Feast of the Annunciation (''Blagovest'' means ''Annunciation'' or ''Good News''). He was born into a priestly family, as seven previous generations of the Popovices (Popović in Serbian actually means "family or a son of a [[priest]]") were headed by priests.
Blagoje Popović completed the nine-years' studies at the Theological Faculty St. Sava in Belgrade in 1914. In the early twentieth century the School of St. Sava in Belgrade was renowned throughout the Orthodox world as a holy place of extreme [[asceticism]] as well as of a high quality of scholarship. Some of the well-known professors included the [[rector]], Fr. Domentian; Professor Fr. Dositheus, later a [[bishop]]; and Athanas Popović; and the great ecclesiastical composer, Stevan Mokranjac. Yet one professor stood head and shoulders above the rest: the then [[Hieromonk]] [[Nikolai Velimirovic|Nikolai Velimirović]], Ph.D., the single most influential person in Fr. Justin's life.
During the early part of World War I, in autumn of 1914, Blagoje served as a student nurse primarily in South Serbia—Skadar, Niš, Kosovo, etc. Unfortunately, while in this capacity, he contracted typhus during the winter of 1914 and had to spend over a month in a hospital in Niš. On [[January 8]], 1915, he resumed his duties sharing the destiny of the Serbian army, he passed a path of Golgotha from Peć to Skadar (along which 100,000 Serbian soldiers died) where on [[January 1]], 1916, he entered the [[monasticism|monastic order]] in the Orthodox [[cathedral]] of Skadar, and took the name of St. Justin, after the great Christian philosopher and [[martyr]] for Christ, St. [[Justin Martyr|Justin the Philosopher]].
Shortly after becoming a [[monk]], Justin, along with several other students, traveled to Petrograd, Russia, to begin a year's study in the Orthodox [[seminary]] there. It was here the young [[monk ]] Justin first dedicated himself more fully to Orthodoxy and the monastic way. He learned of the great ascetics of Russia: St. [[Anthony the Great]] and St. [[Theodosius of the Caves]] in Kiev, St. [[Seraphim of Sarov|Seraphim Sarovsky]], St. [[Sergius of Radonezh]], St. [[John of Kronstadt]], and others.
After his year's study and sojourn in Russia, Justin Popović entered, by the prompting of his spiritual father [[Nikolai Velimirovic|Bishop Nikolaj]], the Theological School in Oxford, England. Justin attended the studies of theology in London in the period 1916-1926, but his doctor's thesis under the title "Filozofija i religija F.M.Dostojevskog" (''The Philosophy and Religion of F.M. Dostoevsky'') was not accepted<!-- "due to radical criticism of the Western humanism, rationalism, [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman-Catholicism]], and anthropocentrism" was this in the paper, or the background of his critics? --->.
