Student List Meets Metropolitan Teodosije in Gracanica

A delegation of the “Students Win” list spent time in Kosovo and Metohija and was received at Gracanica Monastery by Metropolitan of Raska and Prizren Teodosije. The visit came shortly after the parliamentary elections of October 25, in which the list, according to Danas, won 140 parliamentary seats. The Eparchy of Raska and Prizren published a statement and photographs on November 8, and the media picked up the news a day later.

What was said in Gracanica?

The Eparchy says the guests came just a few days after the official confirmation of the election results, in order to get to know the life of the Serbian people and the Eparchy firsthand. They said they wanted to begin the work ahead of them with visits to Gracanica and Visoki Decani. Archimandrite Andrej, the Metropolitan’s deputy and abbot of Crna Reka Monastery, attended the meeting alongside the Metropolitan.

Teodosije briefed the guests on the everyday worries of believers: that families can stay in their homes, that children can go to school, that the sick have access to treatment, and that people can live and work without fear. According to the statement, members of the delegation said they want care for the Serbian people, the protection of sacred sites and the rights of the Church to be among the priorities of their work, and that they will stay in touch with people on the ground. The Metropolitan, as the Eparchy relays, said:

“It matters greatly to our people to know that there is someone to listen to their worries, and that in their efforts to remain on their hearths they are not alone.”

Where else did the delegation go?

On St. Demetrius Day, November 8, the guests visited Visoki Decani Monastery, attended the Holy Liturgy and paid homage to the relics of Saint King Stefan of Decani. With the abbot, Archimandrite Sava, and the Decani monks, they discussed the security of the sacred sites, the protection of church property, and the conditions for life and work of monastic communities. They ended the visit in Prizren, where they toured the Church of the Virgin of Ljevis and other Orthodox sites.

Danas and Vreme, citing KoSSev, tie the entire visit to St. Demetrius Day. The Eparchy mentions the holiday in connection with the liturgy at Decani, but gives no date for the meeting in Gracanica itself.

Who was in the delegation?

The Eparchy did not publish an official list. It said only that the delegation consisted of candidates and students of the Student List, among them three candidates and students from Kosovo and Metohija. Danas and Vreme identify in the photographs professors of the University of Pristina, temporarily seated in Kosovska Mitrovica, Milena Petrovic and Emilija Markovic, as well as their colleague from the Faculty of Medicine, Jugoslav Gasic. All three were Student List candidates in the elections.

Others recognized in the group were professor Dusko Kuzovic, lawyer Fedja Dimovic, a student named Gavrilo, known from student marches for the large wooden cross he carries on his shoulder, and Nikola Marcetic, a student at the Faculty of Music. In Gracanica they were joined by Zivojin Rakocevic, director of the Gracanica Cultural Center, and Jovan Zafirovic, an aphorist from the Kosovo Pomoravlje region.

Gasic is also the subject of our earlier article, “Gasic: no cooperation with Srpska Lista in Kosovo”. The Eparchy’s statement indicates that the delegation promised lasting contact with people on the ground, while it contains no concrete political commitments.