Veljko Zucajić

The holy hieromartyr Veljko Zučajić (1906-1942) was a priest and professor at the seminary in Sremski Karlovci, killed on 23 January 1942 in the Novi Sad massacre (the Novi Sad Raid). His commemoration belongs to the Synaxis of the Saints who taught and studied at the Theological School of Belgrade, whose celebration was ordered by Patriarch Porfirije in February 2024, pending the official decision; he is also commemorated among the martyrs of Bačka.

He was born on 6 September 1906 at Szentendre, in Hungary. He finished four grades of gymnasium and the seminary at Sremski Karlovci, in 1928, and the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade in 1934. He was named substitute teacher at the seminary in Prizren, then at Sremski Karlovci. At the start of the war he moved with his wife to Novi Sad.

Father Veljko was killed on the third day of the bloody Raid, on 23 January 1942. The archpriest of Novi Sad, Teodor Milić, parish priest of the cathedral, testified after the war: "For two whole days the bodies of the killed lay in the streets of Novi Sad, for the killing and plunder lasted a full three days." The account of his death is kept in the Chronicle of the cathedral church of Novi Sad: on 23 January 1942, in the morning, about eight o'clock, Sava Kerac and his son-⁠in-⁠law, Father Veljko Zučajić, professor at the seminary in Sremski Karlovci, were taken from the house, on the pretext that they were going for identification. They were led to the square by the scales, where the others from the square and from Rumenka Street were brought, and from there, all together, in front of the barracks on Ivan Milutinović Street, where they were shot. Believing it was only an identification, Father Veljko, who knew Hungarian well, asked that they all be allowed to return home, for they were honest citizens for whom he vouched. The plea did not help. When he saw that all would be killed, he called them to kneel and pray to God, which they did. While they were kneeling in prayer, they were killed; Father Veljko was the first. The scene was watched from her flat by a Hungarian woman, who told it later to the priest's widow.