Miloš Mandić

Saint New Martyr Miloš Mandić was a protopresbyter of the Serbian Orthodox Church, parish priest and dean in Gračac, where he was born in 1881 and died in 1941. His father, Trivun, was the brother of the mother of the scientist Nikola Tesla.

He finished the upper gymnasium and the seminary at Sremski Karlovci and was ordained in 1908. He served at Plaški, at Gornje Dubrave and at Gračac, where the war found him. The Ustasha arrested him on 29 May 1941, the day after the Ascension, and held him at Gračac with a larger group. He was subjected to terrible torture. In the night of 30 to 31 May the twenty-⁠seven prisoners were loaded into a lorry and taken toward Metak; Father Miloš was put in unconscious. The same night all were killed, in a pine wood between Metak and Vrepac, and thrown into pits. Shepherds learned of it after a few days, when they came upon fresh mounds, and the bodies were so mutilated that they could hardly be recognised, especially that of Father Miloš.

He was canonized in May 2022 by the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, as one of the Holy Hieromartyrs of Upper Karlovac.