12.11.2015
Bas-relief in honour of Holy Abbot Paisius and Holy Deacon Habakkuk unveiled
In the hall of the Central Military Club, today, a bronze bas-relief with the images of Holy Abbot Paisius and Holy Deacon Habakkuk by sculptor Miodrag Dimitrijevic was unveiled. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces and the Serbian Orthodox Church, employees at the Central Military Club and numerous guests.The bas-relief was ceremonially unveiled by Acting Assistant Minister for Human Resources Milos Jankovic and His Grace Bishop Toplicki and vicar of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Arsenije Glavcic.
Addressing the audience on behalf of the host, Director of Odbrana Media Centre Colonel Stevica S Karapandzin recalled that the Media Centre this year started the project of a symbolic celebration of the significant jubilees of the Serbian liberation of history with the unveiling of memorials in the Hall of the Central Military Club. He pointed out that the year in which Serbia celebrates two centuries of the Second Serbian Uprising, 100 years since the Great War and the 70th anniversary of victory over fascism, we have an opportunity to take on a symbolic way of paying tribute to those that marked this period of our history.
- Only he who knows his history and his people can be properly determined in the present and plan the future – Karapandzin said, adding that the bas-reliefs of Nadezda Petrovic, Djordje Vajfert, General Jovan Dragasevic, composer Stanislav Binicki, Vladislav Petković Dis, Archibald Reiss, General Koca Popovic, and, as of today, Holy Abbot Paisius and Holy Deacon Habakkuk are there to remind us that even in wars it is possible and necessary to humane.
He pointed out that today the Central Military Club received its third, permanent gallery, from which the great ones will remind us that we keep a worthy cultural heritage for generations to come, "which is the least the Central Military Club can do, as the house of the military ethos, spirituality, tradition and culture, thus establishing the connection between the past and the future."
With the blessing of His Holiness Serbian Patriarch Irinej, the Central Military Club now has its own slava, Holy King Milutin.
Earlier in the day the Orthodox liturgical space in the Central Military Club was consecrated, and the solemn liturgy, on the day when, four years ago, religious service was returned to the Serbian Army, was held by chaplains Selimir Vagic and Sasa Sovilj. Liturgical space on the third floor of the Central Military Club is dedicated to King Milutin. On the same day, for the first time in seventy years, the premises were consecrated in which, during the occupation in World War II, were taken and used by members of the notorious German Gestapo, especially the former cellar casemates, where during the four years of occupation, people of the capital and the area were tortured.
The artistic part of the programme featured choir "Serbian Orthodox cantors" and drama artists Biljana Djurovic and Hadzi Nenad Maricic.In the place of today’s park in front of the Central Military Club, once was the Stambol Gate, a notorious place among the Serbs, a symbol of suffering under the Ottoman Empire, next to which the Ottomas impaled rebellious Serbs. Right there, as an act of retaliation for Hadzi-Prodan’s Revolt, Abbot Paisius and hundreds of Serbs were impaled, and Deacon Habakkuk, a disciple of Abbot Paisius, was pierced through the heart with a knife, and then his dead body was impaled on a stake. Symbolically, placing bronze reliefs with the images of Holy Abbot Paisius and Holy Deacon Habakkuk, tribute is paid to all the fighters and victims who chose paying for freedom with their life rather than to waive the Orthodox faith and Serbian pride.
