Hieromartyr Peter (Zimonić), Metropolitan of Dabar-Bosnia

IMPORTANT IDENTITY AND DATE CORRECTION: the previous date "June 8" was entirely unconfirmed. Identity established as Metropolitan Peter (Zimonić, secular name Jovan), a 20th-century New Martyr (not a medieval figure, as the see's name might suggest); category refined hierarch→hieromartyr. The correct date is September 4/17.

Born June 24, 1866, in the village of Grahovo, Herzegovina, son of the priest and folk hero Bogdan Zimonić, a participant in the Herzegovinian uprising of 1875–78. He graduated from the Reljevo Seminary (1887) and the theological faculty of Chernivtsi University (1892), continuing studies in Vienna, and was tonsured a monk in 1895. Consecrated Bishop of Zahumlje-Herzegovina in 1903, he became Metropolitan of Dabar-Bosnia (seated in Sarajevo) in 1920.

During his episcopate he built and consecrated several churches, including Sarajevo's Transfiguration Cathedral (1940). When the Nazi-Ustaše occupation began, he refused to abandon his flock, declaring: "I am the shepherd of the people, and so I must remain here." Arrested May 12, 1941, and imprisoned, then sent to the Kerestinec camp.

HONEST CAVEAT: the circumstances of his martyrdom remain disputed — one tradition holds he was burned alive in a brick kiln at Jasenovac; another that he was shot and thrown into the Jadovno pit with 55 other Orthodox priests. Canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1998; added to the ROC calendar December 27, 2000.