Simeon of Dajbabe

Venerable Symeon of Dajbabe (born Savo Popović, 1854-1941) was a Serbian hieromonk and archimandrite, founder and first abbot of the Dajbabe Monastery, dug into a cave in Montenegro. He was revered as a saint in his lifetime, and the Serbian Orthodox Church glorified him in 2010. He is commemorated on 19 March by the old calendar, which is 1 April by the new.

Youth and studies

He was born on 19 December 1854 in Cetinje into the Popović family and was called Little Savo as a child. He soon lost his father and was raised by his grandparents and his uncle Lazo, a priest. He studied at the monastery school in Cetinje, where he excelled in Church Slavonic, chanting and calligraphy. He took part in the Montenegrin-⁠Turkish war, then in 1879 he went to Kiev as a scholarship student of the Russian Church and studied at the seminary and the Theological Academy there, inspired by the lives of the Fathers of the Kiev Caves Lavra. Wishing to know the life of the European West, he went to Paris, where he studied, and then to Geneva in Switzerland, an experience that deeply disappointed him.

In 1887, back in Russia, he was tonsured a monk at the Kiev Caves Lavra with the name Symeon, after Symeon the Myrrh-⁠streaming, and was ordained hierodeacon and then hieromonk.

Dajbabe

In 1888 he returned to Montenegro, served for two years at Vranjina Monastery and then at Ostrog, where he taught at the monastic school founded by Metropolitan Mitrofan Ban. He remained there for eight years, until a young shepherd, Petko Ivezić, came to him with the story of a vision: a saint from the time of Saint Sava had told him that his relics lay hidden in a cave near Mount Dajbabe and that he should tell a monk. At the place there were indeed two graves in the cave. Symeon was convinced by what he found, moved into the cave and began to dig a tunnel and make a place of prayer.

There he built the church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in the cave, founded the Dajbabe Monastery and became its first abbot. The shepherd joined the community as a monk. Until the end of his life he worked on painting the interior of the church, fitting the scenes to the natural shape of the cave. After long asceticism he was believed to have gained the gifts of foresight and discernment. In 1921 the Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church unanimously chose him as Bishop of Zahumlje and Raška, but he refused.

According to tradition, he foresaw the Second World War and the suffering it would bring to his people long before it came, and prayed that he would not live to see it. He fell asleep on 1 April 1941, six days before the invasion of Yugoslavia. The great theologian Archimandrite Justin Popović visited him at Dajbabe.

Veneration

He was held to be holy even during his life. Nikolaj Velimirović called him a holy monk, and Justin Popović wrote of his grace after his first visit. Three years after his death Metropolitan Joanikije, another future saint, gave a speech in which he called him a saint. He was buried in his church, in a tomb cut into the wall at his own wish, and the place became a centre of pilgrimage for the faithful.

On 1 April 1996, the fifty-⁠fifth anniversary of his death, his relics were taken from the tomb, through the efforts of Metropolitan Amfilohije, many priests and the faithful. They are said to give off a pleasant fragrance and to heal the sick. They were then vested anew and placed in a shrine with fine wood carving. Every year since then a great crowd gathers at the monastery on his feast.

On 29 April 2010 the Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church unanimously decided to canonize him among the venerable fathers, and the glorification took place on 2 May 2010, during the Divine Liturgy in the Church of Saint Sava in Vračar, together with Saint Justin Popović. The Assembly set his commemoration at 19 March by the old calendar. On 6 June 2012 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church included his name in the Russian calendar. His holy relics rest in the monastery of Dajbabe that he founded.