His Holiness Patriarch Porfiry of Serbia, during his pastoral visit to the Diocese of Banyaluk (Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), on October 23, 2021, consecrated the restored Miloševac Monastery, dedicated to the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. The Primate led the first Divine Liturgy at the monastery together with Bishop Ephraim of Banyaluksk, co-served by priests and monks of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Pravlife reports.

At the beginning of the Liturgy, a greeting letter from Patriarch Porfiry was read, which said that for His Holiness Vladyka “there is nothing more beautiful” to serve in new or renovated churches.

The monastery in the village of Chirkin-Pole near the town of Prijedor was destroyed during the war between the Austrian and Ottoman empires at the end of the 17th century. Work on its restoration began in 2018 with the blessing of Bishop Ephraim. In November of the same year, Bishop Ephraim consecrated the foundations of the temple. After the Liturgy, Vladyka was the first to thank His Holiness for the visit to Milosevac, thanks to which the faithful of the Republic “are strengthened in faith and hope that with God’s help they will continue the work begun”, and that soon the monastery “will light up the lamp of constant monastic life and monastic prayer”.

In his response, Patriarch Porfiry noted: “Today I am truly honored with the grace of God, because churches are decorated, and there is no greater happiness than serving in them. Serve the Holy Liturgy in them and feel that God is with us in the Holy Liturgy and that we are with Him, and that there is nothing that could shake us in doing good, virtue, in spreading love. ”

According to the Primate, the one who builds temples and monasteries cannot wish evil to others, cannot invent other evil.

“The one who erects shrines, at any time, consciously or not, creates a place of God’s grace, which is at the same time the only love that unites, but never divides, that builds bridges and never destroys. By building and restoring shrines, we all together show here and to the whole world what our aspirations are and what our goal is, ”said Patriarch Porfiry.

The Primate brought the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos to the renovated Intercession Monastery and handed it over with the wishes of the beginning of the renewal of not only this shrine, but also “all the holy places and all the people, which should glorify the name of God now, and ever, and forever and ever.”