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[[Image:StNikolaiVelimirovich.jpg|thumb|right|St. Nikolai Velimirovich (1880-1956)]]
{{orthodoxyinamerica}}
Our father among the saints, [[BishopSaint]] '''Nikolaj Velimirović''' (Николај Велимировић, [[January 5]], 1880 - [[March 18]], 1956, also rendered ''Nicholas'') was bishop of Žiča in Serbia and the author of several many Orthodox books. His most widely-known work is the ''[[Prologue from Ohrid]]''. His first name is pronounced and sometimes written ''Nikolai''.
==Life==
Nikolaj Velimirović was born in the small village of Lelich in Western Serbia. He attended the Seminary of St. Sava in Belgrade and graduated in 1905. He obtained doctorates from the University old-catholic faculty of theology of Berne (1908), while the thesis was published in German in 1910, whereas the doctor's degree in philosophy was prepared at Oxford and defended in Geneva (''Filozofija Filosofija Berklija'' - ''Berkeley's Philosophy'', in French) in 1909. At the end of 1909 he entered a [[monasticism|monastic ]] orderand was ordained a priest the same day. He received the title of archimandrite in 1910 and was named in 1911 an assistant professor in St. Sava Seminary in Belgrade. In 1919, then he was [[Archimandriteconsecration of a bishop|consecrated]] Nikolai was consecrated Bishop of Žiča in the [[Church of Serbia]].
In April 1915 (during WWI) he was delegated to England and America by the Serbian Church, where he held numerous lectures, fighting for the unison of the Serbs and South Slavic peoples. At the beginning of 1919 he returned to Serbia, and in 1920 was posted to the Ohrid archbishopric in Macedonia, where in 1935, in Bitola he reconstructed the cemetery of the killed German soldiers.
During the Second World War in 1941 Bp. Nikolai was arrested by the Nazis in the [[Monastery]] of Žiča (which was soon afterwards robbed and ruined), after which he was confined in the Monastery of Ljubostinja (where, on the occasion of mass deaths by firing squad, he reacted saying: "Is this the German culture, to shoot hundred innocent Serbs, for one dead German soldier! The Turks have always proved to be more just..."). Later, this "new [[John Chrysostom|Chrysostom]]" was transferred to the Monastery of Vojlovica (near Pančevo) in which he was confined together with the Serbian patriarch, [[Gavrilo Gabriel (Dozic) of Serbia|Gavrilo (Dožić)]] until the end of 1944.
On [[December 14]], 1944 he was sent to Dachau, together with Serbian [[Patriarch]] Gavrilo, where some sources, especially the standard Church references, record that he suffered both imprisonment and torture.[http://www.serfes.org/lives/holyhierarchsaintnicholai.htm]
After the War he left Communist Yugoslavia and immigrated as a refugee to the United States in 1946 where he taught at several Orthodox Christian [[seminary|seminaries]] such as [[St. Sava's Serbian Orthodox Seminary (Libertyville, Illinois)|St. Sava's Serbian Orthodox Seminary]] in Libertyville, Illinois and [[St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary (South Canaan, Pennsylvania)|St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary]] and Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania (where he was [[rector ]] and also where he died) and [[St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Crestwood, New York)|St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary]] now in Crestwood, New York. During his time teaching at St. Vladimir's, he was very involved with the life of [[St. Sava Cathedral (New York, New York)|St. Sava Cathedral in New York City]]. He died on [[March 18]], 1956.
==Alleged Anti-Semitism==
Although recently [[Glorification|glorified]] as a saint by the [[Church of Serbia]], some of his writings remain highly controversial. Nikolaj Velimirovic was allegedly anti-semitic and he is supposed to have approved of the holocaust. (See Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic: ''Addresses to the Serbian People—Through the Prison Window''. Himmelsthur, Germany: Serbian Orthodox Eparchy for Western Europe, 1985, pp. 161-162). Others regard his address from Dachau as having been under duress[http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosta/pisma/l-serbs.are.new.jews.html][http://www.balkan-archive.org.yu/kosta/pisma/l-a.little.more.truth.html] and point to the lack of other anti-semitic statements in the rest of his large corpus of writings. He is recorded variously to have said that the Jews "crucified [[Christ]]," but such a statement is historically no different from that in the [[Bible]] or what [[Christians]] have been saying for centuries.
==Hymns==
[[Troparion]] (Tone 8)
:Therefore we glorify you, a new Nicholas well–pleasing to God.
==QuotesWorks=="We should not desire the death of a sinner but his repentance. Nothing so grieves the Lord, Who suffered on the Cross for sinners, than when we pray to Him for the death of a sinner, thereby to remove the sinner from our path. It happened that the Apostle Carpus lost his patience and began to pray that God would send down death upon two sinful men: one a pagan and the other an apostate from the Faith. Then the Lord Christ Himself appeared to Carpus and said: 'Strike me; I am prepared to be crucified again for the salvation The complete works of mankind.' St. Carpus related this event to St. Dionysius Nikolai Velimirovich have been published in twenty-three volumes by the Areopagite, who wrote it down as a lesson to all publishing house Glas Crkve in the Church that prayers are needed for sinners to be saved and not for them to be destroyed, for the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance Valjevo (II Peter 3:9Serbia)." -- ''The Prologue of Ohrid''. _____________ "Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. "Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. "Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world. "Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul. "Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. "They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world. "They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself. "They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments. "They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself. "They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance. "Bless my enemies, O Lord, Even I bless them and do not curse them. "Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish. "Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.
===Books===
*''Beyond Sin and Death'' (1914)
===Articles===
*"[[http://s3.amazonaws.com/orthodox/WhyVigilLampsLitBeforeIcons.pdf Why are Vigil Lamps lit before Icons?]]"(PDF)
* [http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/VelimirovichBlessEnemies.shtml Quotation: Bless My Enemies O Lord -- by Bp. Nikolai Velimirovich]
* [http://orthodox.cn/saints/nikolaivelimirovich/1934-38littlemissionary_en.htm The Chinese Martyrs by Saint Nikolai Velimirovich] (Little Missionary, 1934 — 1938)
==Notes==
<small><references/></small>
==External links==
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/author/Nikolai_Velimirovic Works by Nikolai Velimirovic] from Project Gutenberg
*[http://www.rferl.org/reports/eepreport/2004/02/4-180204.asp East European Perspectives, Article by J. Byford]
* Life of Bishop Nicholai (Velimirovich) in ''Portraits of American Saints'', Compiled and Edited by George A. Gray and Jan V. Bear, Diocese Council and Department of Missions Diocese of the West Orthodox Church in America, 650 Micheltorena Street, Los AnglesAngeles, California, 1994, pp. 74-77 (Quoted at [http://www.serfes.org/lives/holyhierarchsaintnicholai.htm Serfes.org])
[[Category:American Saints]]
[[Category:Bishops]]
[[Category:Bishops of Žiča]]
[[Category:Bishops of Ohrid-Bitola]]
[[Category:20th-century bishops]]
[[Category:Modern Writers]]
[[Category:Saints]]
[[Category:Serbian Saints]]
[[Category:Modern Saints]]
[[Category:20th-century saints]]
[[ro:Nicolae (Velimirovici)]]