Joanikije Lipovac

Saint Joanikije Lipovac, the Hieromartyr (1890 to 1945), was Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral in the Serbian Orthodox Church and died in 1945, killed by the Yugoslav Communist partisans, without trial, after trying to leave the country with priests of the diocese. The Serbian Church honours him as a hieromartyr. His role in the war years is described differently by the sources, and these differences are set out below.

Childhood and studies

Born Jovan Lipovac, on 16 February 1890, in the village of Stoliv in the Bay of Kotor, then in the Kingdom of Dalmatia in Austria-⁠Hungary, his parents were Špiro Lipovac and Marija, born Damjanović. His forefathers had moved to the Bay of Kotor in the early eighteenth century, from Cuce. He finished elementary school at Prčanj, gymnasium at Kotor, the Orthodox Theological Institute at Zadar and the faculty of philosophy at Belgrade, where he also passed the teacher's examination in theological subjects.

On 8 and 10 November 1912 he was ordained deacon and priest by Bishop Vladimir Boberić of Boka Kotorska and Dubrovnik. From 1912 to 1918 he was chaplain at Kotor, and from February 1916 to November 1918 a reserve military priest. In 1918 and 1919 he was parish priest at Lastva. From 1919 to 1925 he taught at the gymnasium at Cetinje, at the girls' school and at the Cetinje seminary, and from 1925 to 1940 he was professor at the First Boys' Gymnasium in Belgrade. As a widowed archpriest he was elected, on 8 December 1939, auxiliary bishop of Budimlja. He was tonsured a monk at Rakovica monastery by Metropolitan Joseph of Skopje on 1 February 1940 and raised to hegumen. On 11 February 1940 he was consecrated bishop in the Belgrade cathedral by Patriarch Gavrilo, Metropolitan Joseph and Bishop Nektarije of Zvornik-⁠Tuzla. On 10 or 11 December 1940, at an extraordinary session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops, he was elected metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, and on 23 February 1941 was enthroned at Cetinje. Patriarch Gavrilo awarded him the red belt.

The war years

The collapse of the Yugoslav monarchy in April 1941 and the German and Italian occupation began hard trials for the Orthodox of Montenegro. The metropolitan, who knew Italian, stayed at Cetinje and was able to continue governing the diocese. According to the Russian source, he succeeded in obtaining the release of part of the interned soldiers and officers of the Yugoslav army, then of Montenegrins arrested by the Italians and Albanians, and fought equally two doctrines, the communist and the fascist-⁠Nazi. In 1941 to 1945, 100 priests perished in Montenegro, of whom 12 were killed by the occupiers and 88 by the communists. Several churches were destroyed. As president of the Red Cross of Montenegro, he repeatedly demanded of the Italian authorities the release of Montenegrins imprisoned or interned in Albania and Italy. From the Metropolitanate's modest means he helped refugees struck by Albanian, Croatian and German terror. In May 1942 he wrote to Archbishop Christopher (Kissi) of the Albanian Church, asking that a Montenegrin hieromonk be allowed to serve at the Peć monastery and to help the Serbs of Metohija interned in Albanian camps, and thanked him for help in releasing interned clergy. He also saw to it that the Saint Peter of Cetinje Seminary was the only one that worked among the five seminaries of the Serbian Patriarchate.

Other sources, the English and Serbian, say he collaborated with the Italian and German occupiers and supported the Chetniks. The Serbian source notes that the situation of the diocese was very tangled: the occupier saw in the Serbian Church an anti-⁠Axis factor, the regime of Sekula Drljević regarded it as a pro-⁠Serbian element, and the partisans were, depending on the period, in greater or lesser conflict with the Metropolitanate. These statements are found in different sources and are not brought here to a single verdict.

Departure and martyrdom

In November 1944, before the arrival of the People's Liberation Army, the metropolitan left Montenegro with 70 priests. Until the end of the month he stayed between Podgorica and Lake Scutari, where several dozen more priests joined him. In early December the group set out west through Sandžak and Bosnia but, having reached Slovenia, fell prisoner. According to the English source he was captured on 12 May near Celje and taken to Zagreb, then, on orders of Milovan Đilas, to Belgrade. By the Russian source he was first brought to Belgrade, where he was accused of having given instructions to Mihailović, then to Aranđelovac. The priests were shot at Zidani Most. By the Serbian source the metropolitan was tortured and killed at Aranđelovac on 18 June 1945 (the Russian source says 8 to 9 June, on orders of Tito's general Peko Dapčević, after cruel torment). The English source gives the place of execution as Bukovik, near Aranđelovac. His grave is not known and his remains have not been found. The commander of the First Yugoslav Army sent to the monastery at Cetinje the murdered metropolitan's panagia and cross.

Three days before his death, on 15 June 1945, he told the OZNA major Radojica Ivanović that he knew he would not leave there alive to see those near him and Montenegro. He said he had been a defender of the Serbian people, that he had shielded people from evil, that God's commandments were law for him and that he gave his soul in peace to God, for he had betrayed no one nor soiled his hands. He gave the major a ring, to be sent to his relatives. The last service he performed was in the newly built church of the Transfiguration at Razboj Ljevčanski.

Veneration

The Serbian Orthodox Church proclaimed him a hieromartyr. The English source says his name was added in 1999 to the list of Serbian saints. He left published sermons, circulars and epistles. On the day of his commemoration the sources say nothing, apart from the dates given above.