Orthodox Icon of St. Nicholai of Zicha & Ochrid

Saint Nicholai of Zicha and Ochrid COPYRIGHTED ART. Do not copy or deep-link to without prior permission from "Come and See" Icons, Books & Art.

March 18th & May 3rd
Troparion (Tone 8)
Golden-mouthed preacher of the Resurrected Christ, guide of the cross-bearing Serbian people through the ages, resonant lyre of the Holy Spirit, joy and glory of priests, teacher of repentance, Bishop of the whole nation, leader of the God-praying army of Christ, O Holy Nicholai of Serbia and all Orthodoxy; with the saints in Heavenly Serbia, pray the Only Lover of mankind to grant peace and unity to our people.

Nicholai Velimirovich was born into a large peasant family in the village of Lelich, Serbia, on December 23, 1880. In 1902, he graduated from St. Sava Theological Seminary. He received his first of many doctorates in Bern, Switzerland in 1909. Later that year, he returned to Serbia and was tonsured a monk at the Monastery of Rkovica. He was soon ordained to the priesthood and later elevated to archimandrite. In 1911 he joined the faculty at the St. Sava in Belgrade and taught there until 1915. During World War I he was sent to England on a diplomatic mission. While there, he lectured at Oxford University and received a doctorate in philosophy and honorary doctorates from Cambridge University and Glasgow University. He returned to Serbian in 1919 and was consecrated a bishop. He was appointed to the Diocese of Zicha and later to the Diocese of Ochrid. While in Ochrid, he wrote the collected stories of the saints that is an invaluable resource: The Prologue of Ochrid. In 1921 and 1922, he founded the Serbian Orthodox Diocese in the United States and Canada. He returned to Ochrid and Zicha until the collapse of Yugoslavia in World War II. During World War II, the Nazis occupied Yugoslavia. Civil war broke out. Hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians were tortured or massacred by the Croatians under the direction of the Nazis. Hosts of other Serbs were sent to Nazi death camps. Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo and Bishop Nicholai were sent to Dachau concentration camp. As the war was nearing its end, Bishop Nicholai and Patriarch Gavrilo were liberated from Dachau. Patriarch Gavrilo returned to Yugoslavia, but Bishop Nicholai did not, having found that he was unwelcome in Serbia. During the years that followed the war, church leaders were not given the freedom to preach the Gospel and teach the Faith in Yugoslavia. So it was from abroad that Bishop Nicholai felt he could best serve the faithful of his Church, and he chose to remain in foreign exile. In April 1946, he returned to America as a refugee. He taught at the Serbian Orthodox Seminary in Libertyville, Illinois, until 1949. Bishop Nicholai moved to the Russian Orthodox St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York and later to St. Tikhon's Monastery and Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, where he eventually became its rector. He insisted on teaching and preaching in English over the protest of much of the other faculty who still taught only in Russian. Bishop Nicholai had health problems from his severe treatment at Dachau, but it never kept him from receiving his spiritual children with joy and teaching with enthusiasm. Bishop Nicholai fell asleep in the Lord on Sunday, March 18, 1956, at St. Tikhon's. Ten days later, his body was moved for burial to the Serbian Monastery of Sava in Libertyville, Illinois, where it remained until April 24, 1991. His body was then taken back to Yugoslavia, where he lay in state in many towns and cities. According to his own final wishes, the bishop's body was finally transferred to his native village of Lelich in Serbia on May 12, 1991. His remains joined those of his parents and his nephew, Bishop Jovan Velimirovich.

This icon is by the hand of Nicholas Papas. This icon is one of the "cloud of witnesses" at St. Philip's Antiochian Orthodox Church, Souderton, Pennsylvania.

Order #phn-74