Venerable Justin (Popović)

Venerable Justin (Popović) was born March 25 — the Annunciation — 1894, in Vranje, southern Serbia, into a hereditary priest's family, baptized Blagoje. He graduated from St. Sava's Seminary, Belgrade; tonsured a monk as Justin during WWI. He continued studies at St. Petersburg Theological Academy, then Oxford and Athens, earning his doctorate. He taught dogmatic theology in Prizren and at Belgrade University's Theological Faculty. Author of the monumental Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church and Orthodox Faith and Life in Christ, and a multi-volume Lives of the Saints. After 1945, barred from teaching by the communists, he withdrew to the Ćelije women's monastery near Valjevo, guiding the sisters and spiritual children (including future Patriarch Pavle of Serbia) for nearly thirty years. He reposed March 25/April 7, 1979 — the same Annunciation feast on which he was born. Canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2010.