Manasija Monastery: A History

According to data from 1906, Archimandrite Melentije was the temporary superior of Manasija Monastery, and the brotherhood also included the hieromonk Dositej, a student at the University of Leipzig.¹⁶³ The celebration of the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the building of Manasija Monastery on Pentecost 1907, on the eve of which Metropolitan Dimitrije Pavlović of Belgrade (1846–1930, later Serbian Patriarch) served the vigil, and on the day of the celebration served the Holy Liturgy and preached,¹⁶⁴ was by some assessments modest.¹⁶⁵ The abbot Nikanor Miljković was superior of the monastery in 1908.¹⁶⁶ Two years later, in 1910 to be exact, the superior of Manasija Monastery was the hieromonk Nikanor;¹⁶⁷ in the following year, 1911, the Manasija hieromonk Nikanor is mentioned as superior of the monastery, as well as the Manasija brethren Aleksandar (on duty in the monastery of Gornjak) and the hieromonk Amfilohije (on duty in the monastery of Grnčarica).¹⁶⁸ The irregular state of affairs in the monastery may also be surmised from the fact that during the construction of the road past the monastery in 1911 the Manasija fortress was badly damaged, and that on that occasion some parts of the moat wall - the counterscarp - were destroyed. The literature also mentions as members of the Manasija community in this period the hieromonk Janićije (who kept the Manasija parish registers in 1911), the hieromonk Pajsije Popović (who likewise kept the Manasija registers in 1911), the hieromonk Agatangel (around 1912), the hieromonk Sofronije Mihajlović and the hieromonk Melentije Radenković (around 1914), the hieromonk Gligorije Radunović, the hieromonk Gavrilo and the hieromonk Kiprijan Kostić (all three around 1915),¹⁶⁹ the hieromonk Dositej Pavlović (around 1919;¹⁷⁰ this is also the monk who reposed as a member of the Manasija brotherhood in June 1933);¹⁷¹ together with the superior, the hieromonk Sofronije, the hieromonk Dositej and the hierodeacon Lukijan are mentioned in 1921,¹⁷² and together with the superior, the abbot Sergije Janaćević, in 1924 the Manasija community also included the hieromonk Melentije Radenković as deputy, the hieromonk Pajsije Popović and the hierodeacon Lukijan Bibić, a graduate of a school of painting;¹⁷³ the press also mentions the hieromonk Emilijan, through whose efforts the Temperance Community "Gornja Resava" was founded at the beginning of 1927,¹⁷⁴ and the literature mentions the hieromonk Irinej Čujka around 1932;¹⁷⁵ until the archival and other material is more thoroughly researched, we are not in a position to know more about the monks of Manasija Monastery at the beginning of the 20th century, especially in the period of the difficult and sorrowful years of the Balkan Wars and the First World War.