Basil of Ostrog

Saint Basil of Ostrog, also called Basil the Wonderworker, was Bishop of Zahumlje in the seventeenth century and is one of the best loved saints of the Serbian people and of Montenegro. He passed to the Lord on 29 April 1671 in Ostrog Monastery, where his relics rest. He is commemorated in the Serbian Church on 29 April, which is 12 May in the new calendar.

Childhood and schooling

He was born Stojan Jovanović, on 28 December 1610 according to tradition, in the village of Mrkonjići on the plain of Popovo near Trebinje, in Herzegovina under Ottoman rule. His parents, Petar and Ana, were pious peasants. Later accounts say that, tending flocks on the hills of Herzegovina, he shared his food with the poor.

Out of fear of the Ottoman blood tax, his parents sent him at about twelve to the hidden monastery of Zavala, where his paternal uncle, the hieromonk Serafim, was abbot. There he learned church letters and came to know the Scriptures well. Later he was sent to the monastery of Tvrdoš near Trebinje for higher study. There he was tonsured with the name Basil, after Saint Basil the Great, and then received the orders of deacon and priest.

The bishop

After a journey to Montenegro, to the monastery of Cetinje, he was made archimandrite of Tvrdoš. The sources also speak of journeys to Mount Athos, to Wallachia and to Little Russia, from which he returned with gifts for the suffering people of Herzegovina. On his way back he stopped at Peć, the seat of the Serbian patriarchs, and Patriarch Paisije Janjevac ordained him bishop. This took place in 1638 (according to others his election was in 1639), with the title Metropolitan of Zahumlje. The title of Skenderija was added later.

His ministry was always in danger. He was persecuted by the Ottomans and slandered also by Catholic missionaries, in the time of Uniate pressure from Dubrovnik, and in 1641 a false Uniate bishop, Savatije, drove him from his seat at Trebinje. According to some sources he retired from the episcopal office in 1649. Without a throne, he travelled through villages and towns, served the liturgy, consoled the fearful and strengthened them in the faith of their fathers.

Ostrog

When the Ottomans destroyed Tvrdoš, he meant to leave for Athos, but the people of Bjelopavlići stopped him, promising that each would give him a measure of wheat. He stayed, struggling first in a cave at Pješivci and then in the cave at Ostrog. On the rock above he founded the monastery. He renewed the church of the Presentation of the Mother of God and built the church of the Elevation of the Cross. He spent the last fifteen years of his life in the cave cell of Upper Ostrog. He fell asleep in the Lord on 29 April 1671. According to tradition, a grapevine grew out of the rock beside his cell.

Veneration

His tomb in the cave church soon became a place of pilgrimage, not only for Orthodox Christians but also for Catholics and Muslims, drawn by reports of miracles through the saint's intercession. Today Ostrog is one of the great pilgrimage sites of the Balkans, especially at Pentecost. In Montenegro he is counted among the greatest saints. The Orthodox theological faculty in East Sarajevo bears his name.