Martyrs of Prebilovci

The Martyrs of Prebilovci are Orthodox Serbian faithful of the village of Prebilovci in Herzegovina, killed by the Ustasha in the summer of 1941 for their faith and their people. They were canonized by the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, meeting in May 2015.

On 6 August 1941 the Ustasha killed about six hundred women and children of the village by throwing them alive into the Golubinka pit. In the following years the killings continued in other pits in the area. Of the nearly one thousand inhabitants of Prebilovci, about eight hundred and twenty were killed in all, and around four thousand Serbs perished in the surrounding region.

The relics of the victims were taken out of the pits in 1990 and placed in the crypt of the church of the Synaxis of Serbian Saints and Martyrs of Prebilovci. In June 1992 the Croatian army burned the village and blew up the church, and aircraft bombs were thrown into the crypt, so that most of the relics were destroyed. The remains are kept today in an ossuary belonging to the church, which is being rebuilt.

They are commemorated on 24 July by the old calendar, which is 6 August by the new one.