Remains of 23 Metropolitans of Cetinje reburied in Montenegro / Православие.Ru

Cetinje, June 23, 2015

On June 20, 2015, the remains of 23 metropolitans of Cetinje in Montenegro, exhumed in the 20th century, were reburied, reports Sedmitza.ru with reference to the official website of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The reburial ceremony took place near the Church of Nativity of the Mother of God (“Cipur Church”), built on the ruins of the old Cetinje Monastery.

The hierarchs’ remains had been exhumed in 1986-1989 under the pretext of carrying out an archaeological research on the territory of the monastery’s necropolis on Cipur – the site of their original burial.

For many years after the exhumation, the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral asked respective agencies to inform the Church about the site where the remains were kept, to return the remains to the Church “to be committed to the earth”. Only as late as in March this year it became known that the remains from the old Cetinje Monastery’s necropolis were “improperly” kept in the King Nikola’s palace. The remains were finally handed over to the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and solemnly interred in a single coffin.

From the time of foundation of the old Cetinje Monastery on Cipur (1484) until its destruction in 1692 and establishment of the new Cetinje Monastery in 1701, it was a residence to 25 metropolitans of Zeta, Montenegro and the Littoral (according to the diptych). Their names are: Visarion (1484-1491), Pahomije I (1491), Vavila (1494), German II (1496), Roman (1520), Pavle (1530), Romil I (1530-1551?), Vasilije I (1532), Nikodim (1540), Makarije (1550-1558), Dionisije (1558), Romil II (1559), Ruvim I (1561), Pahomije II (1568-1573), Gerasim (1573), Venijamin (1582-1591), Stevan (1591-1593), Rufim II Njeguš (1593-1639), Mardarije I (1637-1647), Visarion II (1647-1654), Mardarije II (1654-1661), Rufim III Boljevic (1662-1685), Vasilije II Veljekrajski (1685), Visarion Borilović-Bajica (1685-1692), and Sava I Kaluđeričić from the Očinić (1692-1697). In all probability, 23 of these 25 metropolitans (except for Rufim III, who is buried in the Gornji Brceli Monastery, and Sava I, who is buried in the Dobrska Celija Monastery) were buried precisely on the territory of the necropolis of the old Cetinje Monastery on Cipur, as no information of their burial in any other sites survives.