Hierarch Nicholas of Serbia

St. Nikolaj Velimirović of Serbia was born on December 23, 1880 (January 4, 1881, N.S.), in the village of Lelić near Valjevo, Serbia, into a devout peasant family. He studied theology in Belgrade and continued his education in Switzerland, Germany, England, and Russia, earning doctorates in philosophy and theology. He was tonsured a monk in 1909. He gained worldwide renown as a preacher and writer of vivid, deeply spiritual prose, earning him the epithet "the Serbian Chrysostom." During World War I he undertook diplomatic missions to England and the United States, helping secure Allied support for Serbia. In 1919 he was consecrated Bishop of Žiča, later also heading the Diocese of Ohrid. After Nazi Germany's occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941, he was placed under house arrest, and in 1944 was sent, together with Patriarch Gavrilo (Dožić), to the Dachau concentration camp, where he remained until liberation by the Allies in 1945. After the war he emigrated to the United States, taught at Orthodox seminaries, and continued his ministry of preaching and writing. He died on March 5/18, 1956, at St. Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery in Pennsylvania. He was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2003. In 1991 his relics were translated from the United States to his homeland and now rest at Lelić Monastery.