Damian of Grahovo

Holy Hieromartyr Damian of Grahovo (Damjan Štrbac) was a Serbian parish priest, born on 19 February 1912 at Plavno, near Knin, and killed by the Ustaše on 17 July 1941 in the Jadovno camp. The Serbian Orthodox Church numbered him among the holy hieromartyrs at the Holy Council of Bishops of 20 to 27 May 2003, on the proposal of Bishop Chrysostom of Bihać-⁠Petrovac. His commemoration is on 31 May, according to the Serbian source, and according to the English source also on the first Saturday after Elijah's day.

He finished the seminary at Cetinje in 1932. He was ordained deacon on 17 March and priest on 18 March 1934 at Šibenik. He served as parish priest at Žegar, then at Bosansko Grahovo, where the war found him. At the end of May 1941 the Italian army withdrew from Grahovo and its surroundings, and its place was taken by an Ustaše unit, which on 14 June 1941 began to arrest prominent citizens of the place and the vicinity. Among them Father Damian was arrested. For almost twenty days he stayed in the prison of the District Court in Bosansko Grahovo, then he was taken to Knin and then to Gospić, where he was held as a detainee with the number 577. From the camp he was taken to Jadovno, where he was killed: according to the sources, he was flayed alive by the Ustaše guards and then thrown into a pit.