Children’s Meeting with Hilandar Monks in Čačak, Serbia
On the feast of Saint Prophet Elijah, the Very Reverend Archimandrite Metodije, Abbot of Hilandar Monastery, accompanied by Monk Mitrofan and Hieromonk Marko, visited the association “Theofil 1198”. This is a charitable, educational association based in Čačak, founded to provide support in social protection, education, culture, and art, as well as the spiritual empowerment of youth.
The Hilandar monks were welcomed by children, participants of workshops called “In the Embrace of Hilandar,” and the children’s choir ‘Irmos.’ The Abbot gave the children icons of the Most Holy Theotokos Trojeručica. The gathering with the Hilandar fathers continued in the association’s gallery.
After the welcoming words, Nela Mečanin, the association’s general secretary, introduced the Abbot and the Hilandar brotherhood to the work of the children’s workshops.
After expressing gratitude for the welcome, the Hilandar monks participated in a literary-religious workshop led by religious teacher Irena Čolović, which involved a conversation with the children.
Abbot Metodije spoke to them about his childhood, school, and favorite subjects, while Fathers Mitrofan and Marko shared exciting stories from when they were students. During the conversation, the children drew portraits of the monks, which the Hilandar fathers returned to the monastery as a lovely keepsake.
The children asked numerous questions, to which the monks responded:
“Father Abbot, can you tell us something about Father Kirilo?”
Abbot Metodije:
“Father Kirilo was very short in stature. He lived at a time when the regime in the former Yugoslavia was not favorable to the church, especially monasticism, so he could not fulfill his wish to become a monk. Because of this, he went abroad. He lived in several countries and even reached the USA, where he became a monk. Once, a bishop was coming to the airport in America, and he went as a driver to meet him. American cars are bigger than ours, so he wasn’t visible behind the steering wheel at all. The police stopped him then, and the officers said, ‘We stopped you just to see if there was a driver. We can’t see anyone, but it’s no problem, go ahead.’ After various events, he arrived at Hilandar and became a spiritual father there. When I came to the monastery, I confessed to him. He constantly served liturgies. He had his special vestments because he was very short. After some time, an old Russian hieromonk, Father Raphael, who was even shorter than him, came to Mount Athos. He is still alive and gifted Father Kirilo his vestments. We asked Father Kirilo if they fit him, and he said, ‘Well, they’re small for me.’ So he also experienced something being too small for him. Otherwise, he was a bit deaf in his last years, so we joked a lot with him. He was diligent and attended services until the end of his life. Even when he was sick, and before his death, he went to church. Sometimes he would fall at night since our morning services start before dawn. The monks would find him and say, ‘Father Kirilo, where are you going? You are sick.’ To which he would reply, ‘No, I’m not. I’m going to church.’ So he attended services until his last day and then passed away. Of all the monks we’ve encountered in the monastery over the years, he was talked about the most. Everyone loved him.”
“What did you want to be when you grew up while you were in elementary school?”
Abbot Metodije:
“I remember when our teacher asked us in school what we wanted to be when we grew up, I said I wanted to paint cars. So my first wish was to be a car painter. And we really loved chemistry, even though it was taught by the strictest teacher in elementary school. To be honest, a friend who is now a doctor and I used to steal test tubes from the chemistry lab and conduct experiments for scientific purposes. We even caused a few small explosions. But it was all out of love for chemistry. Then, when I started going to church, I told myself it wasn’t right that we were stealing. One day I packed everything in a box, wrote that it was for the chemistry lab, and left it at the school’s entrance.
Later, when we went to high school, we borrowed various items related to electronics because we were in the electrical engineering department. We packed and returned everything afterward. So, we borrowed everything and did it for scientific purposes.”
Hieromonk Marko:
“I started walking at nine months. I was always a lively child, climbing trees, making figurines of Indians, and various masks. But I also loved sports. My love for basketball prevailed; I had a good jump but lacked height, so I gave it up. I’m 183 centimeters tall, which is not much for a basketball player. If I had been about ten centimeters taller, I would have been a good basketball player. That was what I loved and dreamed about as a child. Later, I realized it was no longer just fun but a kind of effort. There’s no creativity; it all turned into business. I loved all our good basketball players, Kicanovic, Dalipagic… Later, as a student, I earned some money in my brother’s company, who was an economist. He traveled a lot, being in China one moment, then in another country. Then I said, ‘I’ll enroll in this.’ So I enrolled in economics, even though my dad encouraged me to go into medicine. A medicine? At recruitment, they draw blood, and I faint. So there was nothing from medicine. I chose economics, a slightly more creative and lively job. They told me to enroll in electrical engineering too. An electrical engineering… I would have to sit all day over drawings, and I can’t last even five minutes. I barely finished college because I couldn’t sit still for long. I was always restless. I didn’t cause problems, but I was lively. I engraved names in wood and played Indians and cowboys. I lived in Banat, and my street was wide and full of trees. At that time, there were a lot of children, and we played together.”
Monk Mitrofan:
“I wanted to be a radio and TV technician. In my place, there wasn’t a school for that profession; it was in Sarajevo. I got accepted into the school, but my father couldn’t afford to educate me. I applied for a dormitory but wasn’t accepted. So I returned and enrolled in an economic school, so I didn’t study what I wanted.”
“Which school did you go to, and who was your teacher?”
Archimandrite Metodije:
“I went to Vuk Karadzic Elementary School, and my teacher was Ljiljana Tankosic. My favorite subject was recess. Then we went for buns and yogurt for breakfast. I loved physical education in the lower grades and nature and society. That was nice to me.”
“Why did you choose monastic life, and what is the beauty and difficulty of that life?”
Abbot Metodije:
“The right way to decide on monastic life is neither to run away from some problems nor because of disappointment but to serve God fully. However, every Christian serves God. People who live in the world and have families also go to church, fast, and do good deeds, so they also serve God. However, some want to dedicate themselves to it fully, without anything else bothering them, and then they go to the monastery. That’s the right reason why someone chooses monastic life. When someone goes to a monastery in that way, they want to constantly progress spiritually by serving God.”
Abbot Metodije continued by telling the children an interesting story:
“In the Hilandar Monastery, there must always be monks named Mitrofan and Nikanor. Why is that? In ancient times, when ships sailed with sailboats, there were two brothers from the then Serbian Dalmatia, and they were involved in selling lead. They transported lead by ship for sale and stopped to pay homage at the Hilandar Monastery. After completing their prayer and preparing to leave, there was no favorable wind. They waited for days, but there was no wind. They thought about what it could be. Then someone suggested, or perhaps they thought of it themselves, to donate part of the lead to the monastery to cover the church. After they donated the lead to the monastery, a favorable wind immediately began to blow, and they sailed on. On the way, they talked about how miracles happen on Mount Athos. They decided to leave everything and become monks. They were tonsured and received the names Mitrofan and Nikanor. Since that lead still covers the Hilandar church after so many centuries, in memory of their gift and the miracle that happened, we must always have two monks named Mitrofan and Nikanor,” concluded Archimandrite Metodije.
