Miloš Obrenović

St. Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović: The Tragedy of a High Ecclesiastical Office St. Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, in a conversation with his friend and companion, the writer and journalist Grigorije Božović, confessed the full complexity and tragedy of this high ecclesiastical office: “I feel how this rank and position separate me from the people,” Bishop Nikolaj says, and continues: “On the very day of my episcopal consecration, I felt a great barrier arise between me and my closest friends, even my relatives. It was as though someone had lowered an iron curtain around me. Such is the bitter fate and destiny of this calling. A bishop is condemned to loneliness. He is surrounded by flattery and servile hypocrisy from his associates and those around him, among whom there is not a trace of sincerity. Every bishop is a solitary figure under a curse, a prisoner of a virtual world created by the insincerity of his surroundings. That is why I never wanted the episcopal rank. I was elected against my will, and only temporarily, ‘to save the situation and help organize the Church.’ Even then, I knew and felt that I could be of greater service to the Church from a lower position in the hierarchy than from a higher one. All of this proved true in practice and in life. The people, devastated and bewildered by the war, sought spiritual and moral guidance and advice. Yet no one among the higher hierarchy, myself included, was able to help them, because our elevated positions had separated and distanced us from the people. I wrote all of this in my resignation from episcopal office. This is the bitter truth about the most important calling in the Church, my dear Božović. I am speaking of the episcopal vocation and rank.” When Grigorije Božović asked what had separated the “apostles” and witnesses of the Word from the people, the Bishop replied: “The Edict of Milan separated them. That decree of Constantine was disastrous for Christ’s Church. The Church became an appendage of the state. Privileges undermined its divine identity. Monasticism responded to that decree by retreating into the desert and withdrawing from the world. Bishops became a privileged aristocracy. They began imitating the clothing and manners of Byzantine emperors and aristocrats. When Byzantium disappeared, they remained as sorrowful imitations of a bygone era. A vestige and relic of pagan Rome.”