The reception of the relics of Saint Joasaph (Jovan Uroš) of Meteora in Hilandar
On the feast day of Saint Martyr Trifun in the year 2024, the Venerable Archimandrite Methodius, together with the brotherhood, welcomed the Metropolitan of Stagira and Meteora Theoclitus, and the abbot of the Great Meteor Monastery, Archimandrite Niphon.
During the visit to the Holy Imperial Serbian Lavra, as a blessing from the Great Meteor Monastery, he brought a fragment of the relics of Venerable Joasaph, which will remain as a gift at the Hilandar Monastery.
Venerable Joasaph, Jovan Uroš, was the last male descendant of the Nemanjić dynasty. He was also the last Serbian ruler to hold the title of Emperor. He was the son of Simeon Uroš Nemanjić and the nephew of Emperor Dušan. After a few years of rule, he abdicated the imperial throne and became a monk at the Great Meteor Monastery, where his relics rest.
The news that he had inherited the throne reached him on Mount Athos. When the Turks occupied Thessaly, he spent several years living in the Athonite Vatopedi Monastery, where his ancestors, monks Simeon and Sava, had resided two centuries earlier.
Together with Saint Athanasius of Meteora, his spiritual father, he was one of the founders of Meteora. Like other members of the Nemanjić dynasty, he built churches and supported many monasteries. He passed away in a small cell on Meteora in 1423, after more than four decades of monastic life.
Last year, a symposium was held in the Stagira Metropolis to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the repose of this Venerable, attended by the abbot and brotherhood of the Hilandar Monastery. On that occasion, it was agreed that the metropolitan and the abbot would bring a fragment of the relics of Venerable Joasaph as a gift to the Serbian monastery on Mount Athos, which has been realized on this day.
Troparion to Saint Joasaph (Tone 3):
With heart and soul, you loved the Lord Christ, leaving behind all the beauties of the world. You preferred to serve God in humility and obedience rather than sitting on the royal throne. Therefore, we devoutly praise you and celebrate your holy memory, crying out: Father Joasaph, blessed by God, pray to Christ our God for the salvation of our Christian race.
