Hierarch
Saint (Hierarch) Mardarije (Uskoković) of Libertyville and All America
1889–1935
Also known as: Свт. Мардарий (Ускокович), Мардарий Либертивилльский, Мардарий Лешанский, Либертивилльский и всеамериканский, Иван Ускокович
A Montenegrin monk who spent twelve years studying and serving in Russia and became the first Serbian Orthodox bishop in America, founder of St Sava Monastery in Libertyville; canonised by the Serbian Church in 2015 and added to the Russian Church calendar in 2017.
Saint Mardarije (Ivan Uskoković) was born on 22 December 1889 near Podgorica, Montenegro. He became a monk at Studenica Monastery and was sent to Russia, where he spent twelve years: he studied at the seminaries of Zhytomyr and Kishinev and graduated from the Petrograd Theological Academy in 1916. In 1917 the Russian Holy Synod made him an archimandrite and head of the Serbian mission in America.
In 1919 the Second All-American Council of the Russian Church in Cleveland approved him as a bishop for the Serbian parishes, but he would not be consecrated without his own Church's blessing and went to Belgrade, where he headed Rakovica Monastery. Back in America he founded St Sava Monastery in Libertyville, Illinois. Elected bishop of America and Canada by the Serbian Church in December 1925 and consecrated on 25 April 1926, he organised the first Serbian diocese in North America.
He died of tuberculosis on 12 December 1935 and was buried at Libertyville. The Serbian Church canonised him on 29 May 2015; his relics were found incorrupt in 2017, and in October 2017 the Holy Synod of the Russian Church added him to its calendar. He is commemorated on 29 November / 12 December.