Joanikije of Devič

Venerable Joanikije of Devič (in Serbian Joanikije, in old texts also Janićije) was a Serbian saint of the fifteenth century, an ascetic in the Devička forest, in Drenica (Kosovo), where the monastery of Devič rose, in which his relics lie. Our record gives the year of death as 1430. He is commemorated on 26 April, Old Style (9 May New Style).

Life

According to tradition he was a Serb from the Principality of Zeta or, according to another source, a Serb from Dalmatia under Austrian rule. As a young man, with a burning love for Christ, he left home and settled in the valley of the river Ibar, at the mouth of the river Crna Reka, in a narrow cave in which, according to tradition, Saint Peter of Koriša had lived earlier. When his fame began to spread among the people, he fled to Drenica and hid in the thicket of the Devička forest. There he spent years of solitude, silence and prayer.

The monastery and the relics

According to tradition, the Serbian despot George Branković brought him his mad daughter, whom the saint healed. Out of gratitude Branković built a monastery on that place, known to this day as the monastery of Devič. The saint was known as a healer of all diseases, especially of the "possessed". Here his relics rest, which the faithful regard as wonderworking. For his life we have little information; the source most often cited is the Prologue of Ohrid of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović.

The monastery was burned in 1941 by Albanian extremists and rebuilt in 1945. In 1999, during the Kosovo war, it was again a target of the Kosovo Liberation Army; the monastery was vandalized, and food and two cars were stolen. In June 1999 the marble tomb of the saint was desecrated by local Albanians; since then it has been under constant guard of the French troops of KFOR.