Sebastian Dabovich

Saint Sebastian (Sevastijan) of Jackson, in the world Jovan Dabović (1863-1940), was a Serbian archimandrite and missionary in America, the first Serbian Orthodox monk born on North American soil and, according to some sources, the first Orthodox priest born in the United States. Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović called him "the greatest Serbian missionary of modern times". The Serbian Church canonized him in 2015, and his memory is kept on 17 November (30 November in the new style).

Beginnings

He was born on 9 June 1863 (old style) in San Francisco, California, to Serbian immigrants from Risan in the Bay of Kotor. At baptism he was given the name Jovan. At twenty-⁠one he entered the Theological Academy in Saint Petersburg, and in Russia he was tonsured a monk with the name Sebastian and ordained hierodeacon (in 1887 or 1888). In June 1889 he returned to America to serve at the church of Saint Alexander Nevsky in San Francisco. On 16/28 August 1892 he was ordained hieromonk by Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov).

Missionary work

He was sent to Minneapolis, in Minnesota, in place of Father Alexis Toth, at the church of Saint Mary, where he cared for Serbs, Russians, Greeks and all who needed spiritual help. In 1892 he founded at Jackson, California, the first Serbian Orthodox parish in the United States and, on 11 January 1894, began the building of the first Serbian church on the continent, dedicated to Saint Sava and consecrated in 1894. He founded other Serbian churches in America too and was appointed missionary in California and Washington State. It is believed that he baptized more people than any other priest in the Western Hemisphere. He served temporarily at Seattle (the future Saint Spiridon Cathedral) until the arrival of Father Ambrose Vretta in November 1895, and then at Portland, Oregon, and Butte, Montana. He was known as an apostle to the Serbs who emigrated to America. In 1897 he visited, with Bishop Nicholas, Fort Ross, left by the Russians almost half a century before. In 1899 Emperor Nicholas II awarded him the Order of Saint Anne. In 1902 he returned to Alaska as dean of the Sitka deanery and helped found the church of Saint Sava in Douglas. At the turn of the century he corresponded with the Anglican Rev. Francis J. Hall on relations between the two Communions.

Besides his pastoral and missionary work he prepared Orthodox literature in English: "The Lives of the Saints" (1898), "The Holy Orthodox Church" (1898), "Preaching in the Russian Church" (1899), explanations of the services and collections of sermons. On 15/28 March 1905 Bishop Tikhon (Belavin) appointed him dean of the Serbian churches in the Aleutian diocese, and on 17/30 August 1905 the Holy Synod named him head of the newly created Serbian Mission. On 18 September/1 October 1905 he was raised to the rank of archimandrite. From 1904 to 1910 he led the mission from the church of the Holy Resurrection in Chicago, where he was also parish priest. In 1905 Bishop Tikhon reported to the pre-⁠conciliar commission that a diocese of its own was needed for the Serbian parishes and recommended Sebastian as bishop. Failing to obtain the transfer of the Serbian communities (from 1910 to 1919 served by fourteen Serbian priests) to the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church, he asked in 1910 to be released. A year later he joined the faculty of the newly opened Saint Platon Seminary in Tenafly, New Jersey. Soon afterwards he asked to leave, to serve as a chaplain in the Serbian army in the Balkan Wars and the First World War. The Serbian American inventor Nikola Tesla also helped him with material means.

His end and veneration

In 1936 he moved definitively to Serbia and settled in the monastery of Saint Sava at Žiča. On 30 November 1940 he was visited by Saint Nikolaj Velimirović, who asked the dying man: "Do you need anything?" The archimandrite answered: "Only the Kingdom of Heaven." These were his last words. Bishop Nikolaj buried him at Žiča monastery. He received the Order of Saint Sava and the Order of Prince Danilo I.

At the beginning of 2007 the Holy Synod of the Serbian Church decided to move his remains to the church of Saint Sava at Jackson, California, and the move took place on 1 September 2007. The Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Church, meeting in May 2015, numbered him among the saints (on 30 May 2015, at Belgrade) as a venerable father, with his memory on 17/30 November. On 5 September 2015, at Alhambra, California, Patriarch Irinej of Serbia presided over his glorification, with the participation of several hierarchs of the Serbian, Constantinopolitan, American and Georgian Churches. On 6 October 2017 the Holy Synod of the Russian Church added him to its calendar.