Battle of Cer - First Allied victory of World War One led by Serbs

On August 23rd, 2009, In the midst of ceremonies marking the 95-year anniversary of the Battle of Cer [pronounced Tser], the first Allied victory of WWI, the archpriest of the Serbian Šabac Diocese announced the building of a church dedicated to the fallen heroes of the First World War and to the glorious Serb-Russian saint, St. John the Wonderworker.

“We shall do everything to make sure the Cer heroes finally have their own church. Back in 1939, the reserve officers from this region collected money and received permission to build the holy temple by the Tekeriš Memorial, but the war thwarted their plans. Many of them lost their lives while fighting as Chetniks, and those who survived the war ended up in communist prisons. St. John of Shanghai — missionary, wonderworker and benefactor - will be the patron saint of the church,” Fr. Petrović said.

The Serbian state ceremony of the laying of the wreaths at the Tekeriš Monument to the heroes of the Battle of Cer on August 23rd, 2009 was also attended by representatives of the governments of Russia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Hungary and Austria, who also laid wreaths at the monument to the fallen Serb WWI heroes.

"Mr. Colonel, Sir! Requesting permission to go to the unit’s infirmary to get the wound bandaged, I will return immediately!"

A few minutes later, the winded messenger brought a letter to the wounded lieutenant from the colonel, reading:

“My son, I beg you as I beg the Lord, do hold on — the auxiliary is on its way. The eyes of all of Serbia are upon you!”

This dialogue of the commander of the Third Division of the Serbian Army with his son, officer in charge for combat security, took place 95 years ago, on the slopes of Cer Mountain in central Serbia.

The famous battle, deemed a masterpiece of the art of war for its brilliant strategy, command and execution, courage, heroism, tactics, sacrifices and triumphant outcome, broke out near the village Tekeriš on Cer Mountain, in the night between the 15th and 16th of August 1914.

By August 24th, there wasn’t a single Austro-Hungarian soldier left on the territory of Serbia.

Austro-Hungarian soldier Egon Erwin Kisch described in his personal diary the devastating defeat that the Austro-Hungarian army suffered in Serbia in the following way:

“Our army has been crushed and it is running away in utter disarray, in a wild and panic-stricken flight: a beaten army — no!, an uncontrolled mob running towards the border in senseless panic. Drivers whipped their horses, artillery troops jabbed their horses with spurs, officers and soldiers shoved and squeezed through between the columns of wagons, or ran in bunches through the roadside trenches…”

In the Battle of Cer Serbian forces lost more than 16,000 soldiers, while the Austro-Hungarians, who invaded Serbia from Bosnia, suffered a loss of over 25,000 troops.

“In honor of those known and unknown Serbian heroes of the Battle of Cer, whose immense sacrifice marked the beginning of the end of the Habsburg Monarchy, we have started building a wooden church near the mountain summit, for which we have received a blessing by the Šabac Diocese Bishop Lavrentije,” Father Vojislav Petrović from the town of Šabac told the Belgrade daily Politika, adding that “Cer Mountain is Serbia’s undeniable Olympus of Freedom, and it should also be its spiritual junction.”

I did not know he was Serbian. Thanks for letting me know!

He is not. He was born in 1896 in Kharkov, Russia. His parents fled the Bolshevik takeover in 1921 and, as many other Russians, sought refuge in the then fraternal and traditionalist Serbia (which was aprt of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia), where they were welcome.

There, he attended religious studies and graduated from the Belgrade theological seminary.

The Russian Church Outside of Russia sought refuge in Serbia as well, but was faced with aggressive attempts of the Ecumenical Patriarch who wanted to place it it under his jurisdiction, arguing that the Russian Church outside of Russia had lost its Patriarchal See.

The Serbian Church rejected Ecumenical Patriarch's megalomaniac intentions and granted RCOR the Patriarchal See on its territory, recognizing it as the true Russian Church, and this is the reason why ROCOR remained in communion with the Serbian Church until its eventual reunification with the Church of Russia.

I am not sure if +John the Wonderworker is or isn't considered a Serbian saint as well. He would have to be venerated spontaneously by the poeple in order for that to happen. I have personally never seen him mentioned in that context.

Serbs are funny when it comes to their Church. Some Serbs don't even go to Russian churches because it's "not in Serbian." or "we don't speak Church Slavonic..." They don't even seem to realize that the Serbian Church dropped Church Slavonic as the primary liturgical language in 1963 under communist pressure and some wear that their grandfathers back in 1919 attended liturgy in Serbian and never learned Church Slavonic!

Many of the refugees who flooded the US form Serbian lands following the civil war in Bosnia tell me that they eat meat on certain feasts which are supposed to be fasting because thats same grandfather did to back then...Mythology seems to be the rule. So, just because someone in Serbian newspapers calls +John Maximovitch a Serbian saint doesn't mean he is Serbian.

Don't confuse the Serbian churches in diaspora. They are probably more traditional Serbian than anything you will find in Serbian lands today. Most of the Serbian churches were not even in communion with the Belgrade Patriarchy until 20 years ago because many of the clergy were suspected of being communist implants.

The Serbian churches outside of Serbia were established 40-50 years ago when the best of the best of Serbia's intellect and middle class left the country under communism. What's left is not what I would call the same...

For what it is worth, this wikipedia article says that St. John’s family in southern Russia was of Serbian origin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Shanghai_and_San_Francisco

The Orthodox wiki does not mention that, but talks about exile in Serbia as you do:

http://orthodoxwiki.org/John_Maximovitch

??????

In the (American) Serbian Orthodox parish where I worship (I will be there this coming Sunday), we worship mainly in Slavonic (with some Serbian and some English). It’s too bad what communists do to nearly everything they touch.

For what it is worth, this wikipedia article says that St. John’s family in southern Russia was of Serbian origin

It depends how many generations. His parents' names are not Serbian. As far as I know, no one really considers him a Serbian saint, fwiw.

It goes without saying. Old Serbian emigre churches are probably more Serbian and traditional than anything you will find in Serbia today, including the Church hierarchy. The things I read on Serbian Orthodox forums make my hair stand up.

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