An Interview of Bishop Xenophon with the American Serb newspaper Sloboda (Part 1)
Source: Слобода, no. 2273,
July 10, 2026, p. 12.
Interview conducted by Dobrana
Komnenić and Jelena Tasić.
In the following lines, we present the first part of the
interview given by His Grace Xenophon, Bishop of Raška and Prizren in Exile, to
the newspaper of the American Serbs Sloboda. The interview was published
on July 10, 2026.
The Editorial Board
In June, sixteen years passed since the establishment of the
Eparchy of Raška and Prizren in Exile, which arose from a portion of the
monastic community that, following the expulsion of the late Bishop Artemije
(Radosavljević) from Kosovo and Metohija, left the Eparchy of Raška and
Prizren. Today, the Eparchy in Exile has more than forty catacomb institutions,
around 150 monks and nuns, fifteen non-monastic priests, and a large number of
faithful. Bishop Xenophon (Tomašević) of Raška and Prizren in Exile speaks to Sloboda
about the reasons for the establishment of the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren in
Exile, the life of its catacomb monasteries, and the state of affairs in the
Serbian Orthodox Church, Orthodoxy, Serbia, and its southern province. We are
publishing the interview in two installments.
* * *
How well informed is the
public today about the expulsion of the late Bishop Artemije from the see of
the Bishop of Raška and Prizren and Kosovo and Metohija in 2010, and how did
the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren in Exile come into being?
It was precisely in June of this
year that sixteen full years had passed since that tear which Bishop Artemije
shed as he bade farewell to the faithful people and monastic community in the
refectory of Gračanica Monastery on June 8, 2010, and since his moving homily
in which he said that one day we would gather at Gračanica Monastery and bury
him in the monastery cemetery, as was fitting and proper. But the providence,
will, and permission of God ordained otherwise.
Neither our Synod of the Serbian
Orthodox Church nor our Elder had any plans as to what would come next after he
was assigned exile to northern Serbia, to Šišatovac Monastery. This persecution
was unjust, unsupported by any evidence, and carried out contrary to all the canons
and the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church. He was uncanonically
retired and relieved of the administration of the eparchy. He was not even
permitted to remain and live in one of the monasteries of the Eparchy of Raška
and Prizren, which he had governed.
To those who possessed even a
modicum of sound reason and who were not bound to Christ and His Church by any
day-to-day political, ecclesio-political, or ecclesio-economic interests, it
was clear from the very beginning that this was a religious persecution as
well, and not merely a politically motivated one.
The late Bishop held clear,
well-argued, and concrete positions, which he put into practice through
decisive actions that our Elder carried out with foresight and courage from the
very moment he ascended the throne of the Bishop of Raška and Prizren in 1991,
and especially after the occupation of Kosovo and Metohija in 1999. His
struggle against the outrages committed by the Šiptars against the Serbian
people, under the lethargic and approving gaze of the international community
and the purported peacekeeping forces sent to Kosovo and Metohija to implement
UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which remains internationally valid and
legally binding, was widely noted. His religious and national work was closely
monitored not only by domestic powerbrokers but also by foreign ones. Thus, in
2010, the then U.S. Ambassador Mary Warlick drew the attention of the then
Patriarch Irinej to the “harmful” work of Bishop Artemije. Patriarch Irinej
soon carried out this important intelligence and logistical assignment.
What was he reproached for?
In addition to his efforts to
preserve Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia and to ensure the survival of the
Serbian people, Bishop Artemije and his clergy were waging another great
battle: the preservation of the faith and the holy things of the Orthodox Church
from the heresy of Ecumenism. I would say with the utmost certainty that the
struggle against Ecumenism was the principal factor behind Bishop Artemije’s
being so brutally removed from his episcopal throne and, following his removal,
a more “cooperative” and “peaceable” bishop being placed upon the throne of the
eparchy—one who would not constitute a disruptive factor in establishing the
rosy fairy tale of an independent Kosovo, if we are speaking of the national
and state-political aspect, and of the Ecumenist heresy, if we are speaking of
the spiritual and ecclesiastical aspect.
The Serbian people have largely
seen and understood this, for otherwise the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren in
Exile would not, throughout all these years, have led an ever more active
liturgical and spiritual life, preaching in a missionary manner the Gospel of
the Church of God and of Saint Sava’s “Serbian Christ.” This is also confirmed
by the large number of faithful in each of our approximately forty holy
places—catacombs, monasteries, and parish places of worship—which today are
found not only in Serbia and Europe.
The truth cannot be hidden and
buried. For, as our holy Elder often said, the more deeply it is buried, the
more brilliantly it will rise again.
After sixteen years, are the
political and ecclesiastical motives behind the persecution of Bishop Artemije
clearer, motives also attested by documents from WikiLeaks, even though he was
officially punished by the Church for the alleged misuse of eparchial finances,
for which he was also tried before a secular court, while after his repose his
associates were sentenced to prison terms and fines, which were subsequently
upheld?
From the very beginning of those
tragicomic proceedings conducted before the Belgrade court, we requested that
the trial be open to the public, and many of us monks and faithful attended
every hearing. We did not want our Elder and his associates to be tried in
secret and behind closed doors in that joint proceeding. None of those who
attended as observers could escape the impression that the entire farce had
been rigged through collusion between the regime and the ecclesiastical
leadership—by “the regime,” I should note, I mean not only the present one, but
also the previous one, Tadić’s—with such clumsy and wretched arguments and such
enormous procedural failings, concerning which legal experts could speak in
greater detail and, I am certain, will speak; experts who, I believe, will one
day study and explain that tragic legal mockery. I say “mockery” because that
is what the trial looked like: incompetent judges; scandalous police failures
in losing the seized registers—the so-called evidence, which could no longer be
traced; prosecution witnesses who did not indicate, by a single word or even
the most elementary piece of evidence, that any misuse had occurred; and the
transparent and obvious collusion between the prosecutors and the judge…
It was moving to watch our
eighty-five-year-old Elder, our spiritual father, answer every question put to
him calmly and with well-founded arguments. One day, it will be very useful to
read and publish those court records, provided that they are not somehow
mislaid and disappear, like those notorious registers that could not be traced
throughout the entire trial.
With the Bishop’s death, that
tragicomic proceeding was brought to an end—to the great relief, I would say,
of both the prosecutors and the judges. Of course, sentences had to be imposed
upon the remaining defendants, so that at least some semblance of legality
might be displayed before the public. Particularly shameful was the sentence
imposed upon Jelena Šubarević, who, in her professional capacity as an
architect, took part in the restoration of and work on Serbian holy sites
within the territory of the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren—a wonderful Serbian
woman and a zealous Orthodox Christian—who was sentenced, though entirely
innocent, to house arrest, which she is still serving. We wish her, trusting in
Christ, the dishonored Founder of the spiritual contest, to endure all that
injustice and the humiliation and persecution inflicted upon her on earth; and
we remind all the unjust persecutors, prosecutors, and judges of the innocent
that no one will escape the justice of God and the righteous right hand of Saint
Sava.
The case of Bishop Artemije
marked the beginning of canonically questionable removals of bishops in the
Serbian Orthodox Church. The most recent removal took place at this year’s May
Assembly, at which Metropolitan Justin was removed from the Eparchy of Žiča. He
is Bishop Artemije’s longest-standing spiritual child. How do you comment on
the fact that these indictments concern only financial matters, even though in
the case of Bishop Justin, as in that of Bishop Artemije, there are clear
elements of political persecution?
You see, stories about money,
abuses, and stealing from innocent people are the easiest to promote and
justify before our tormented, long-suffering, and impoverished people. It is
much more difficult to promote a narrative or an indictment concerning the
faith, the canons, the dogmas, and the truths of Orthodoxy, because in these
stories about the misuse of money you can always find something and present it
in whatever way suits you, especially in this insane age of an enormous
quantity of all manner of information and disinformation.
Thus, on one occasion, an
unfortunate metropolitan, a fellow hierarch and persecutor of Bishop Artemije,
declared amid sobs that “Artemije is building villas throughout Serbia with
money he took from the slaughtered people of Kosovo and Metohija.” Some unworthy
ecclesiastical powerbrokers who, regrettably, for several decades have governed
the Serbian Orthodox Church not pastorally in the name of Christ, but in the
name of those from whom they received pectoral crosses, episcopal rings, and
other comforts and privileges of life—some of those ecclesiastical powerbrokers
of ours—have “gone before God to answer for the truth.” Bishop Irinej (Bulović)
of Bačka still remains, known for his “charism” that no one who has ever
crossed him will go unpunished.
I would by no means equate the
persecution and removal of Bishop Justin of Žiča, certainly uncanonical and, in
all likelihood, based on false accusations, with the relentless persecution of
Bishop Artemije. Unlike the perpetual “swimmer against the current” that Bishop
Artemije was—a defender of the Kosovo Covenant and of the truth of the Orthodox
Church—Bishop Justin, apart from his venture of receiving and supporting
Serbian students and farmers during the protests, did not enrich his life’s
record with any particular ascetic struggles in opposing Serbian ecclesiastical
innovators and Ecumenists. On the contrary, he very much swam downstream
together with the others at the heretical robber council of Crete in 2016 as a
member of the Serbian delegation: he demonstrated his agreement and
cooperation, participated in prayer services with the heterodox, and abandoned
his spiritual father Artemije to be carried away by the turbulent sea into
which they had thrown him from the synodal deck in 2010.
Of course, the Bishop of Bačka
could not forgive Justin for being the first monastic tonsure of Crna Reka, for
having sprung from the nursery of Serbian monasticism established by Bishop
Artemije, the restorer of that monasticism, for which Elder Justin of Ćelije
blessed and commended him shortly before his death. This, it appears, was
decisive in the persecution of Bishop Justin, for the powerbroker of Bačka will
exert every effort to eradicate any mention whatsoever of Bishop Artemije from
the Serbian Church. If this is so—and I believe that it is—then let the other
spiritual children of Bishop Artemije, who beat their breasts declaring that
they would “not obey Artemije, but the Church,” prepare themselves as well. Are
they now next on the agenda?
Despite the depositions and
excommunications pronounced against Bishop Artemije and the monastic community
that followed him out of the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren in 2010, how are we
to understand your words that the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren in Exile is “the
purest and healthiest part of the Serbian Orthodox Church”? Are there examples
in the history of Orthodoxy of one man or a smaller religious group, such as
yours, succeeding in preserving and strengthening the faith?
Persecutions, anathemas, and
depositions inflicted upon the right-believing by heretics never have any
effect or grace-bearing efficacy before God and the Church of God, regardless
of how much power those heretics possess within the Church and regardless of
the support they receive from state authorities and foreign powerbrokers. This
is what the history of the Church teaches us, for it is replete with such
examples.
Let us mention only a few Saints
and God-pleasers who found themselves in similarly difficult circumstances at
various times and in various places: Saint John Chrysostom, one of the most
beloved Fathers of the Church, was twice exiled and unjustly deposed, although
he was Bishop of Constantinople. Employing various intrigues, they accused him
of causing a schism, which he did not acknowledge, and he asked his followers
not to recognize his deposition.
Then there was Saint Maximus the
Confessor, a Byzantine theologian who upheld the teaching upon which the
Orthodox Church rests today: that Christ has a human and a Divine nature.
Because of this teaching, the Byzantine emperor and patriarch banished him into
exile, where he died. The Sixth Ecumenical Council accepted Maximus’s teaching
and proclaimed him a Saint.
Let us also mention Saint
Theodore the Studite, who was twice exiled because he opposed the uncanonical
decisions of the Patriarch of Constantinople. He was tortured and exiled for a
third time because of Iconoclasm—his struggle against those who were destroying
the icons. Today, all Orthodox churches are adorned with icons. And then there
was Saint Mark of Ephesus, who fought against the decision to unite with the
Latins.
There are many other inspiring
examples from sacred Church history, down to the most recent example of the
Russian Church Abroad, which brought forth Saints after separating itself from
communion with the Sergianist, state-subservient, and Ecumenist Moscow
Patriarchate.
Therefore, to answer your
question directly: the Orthodox Church has many individuals who preserved our
holy Orthodox faith. Our example is neither unique nor isolated, but is simply
a following of the holy and sacred examples of the Fathers of the Church, the
confessors of the Orthodox faith.
Such faith and such a sacred
disposition are, glory be to God, seen and recognized by a multitude of
Orthodox people, both in Serbia and throughout the inhabited world, who
joyfully place themselves beneath this sacred banner, which was raised so high
and held so firmly by our predecessor upon the confessional throne of the
Eparchy of Raška and Prizren, our Father and Elder of blessed and eternal
memory, Bishop Artemije. We, his spiritual children, strive to continue
confessing that Truth and steadfastly serving God and His Church according to
our strength and by the grace of God, by which, in the words of the Apostle
Paul, we are what we are. We pray to God and Saint Sava that He may strengthen
and bless this path of ours, to the glory of God and the triumph of Orthodoxy
and the Saint-Sava tradition.
More than one-third of the
monastic community left the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren in 2010. What is the
structure of the Eparchy in Exile today: how many catacomb monasteries are
there in Serbia and outside it, how many monks and priests does it have, and
how is the Eparchy in Exile governed, having, in addition to you as Bishop
Artemije’s successor, three chorepiscopi?
A large number of monastics left
the nursery of monasticism, the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren—that is, the
territory of the eparchy as it had existed until then—when Bishop Artemije was
persecuted, because they neither consented to nor agreed with the uncanonical
decisions concerning his persecution. The Bishop himself, warning against the
unscrupulous and unjust members of the Synod, the usurpers of ecclesiastical
authority, commented in these words: “You have dropped an atomic bomb on the
Eparchy of Raška and Prizren!”
We followed the Bishop without
any plan or program whatsoever, with only the awareness that we did not wish to
consent to those uncanonical and unecclesiastical decisions concerning our
Elder, whom they not only uncanonically deposed but also forbade to be our
spiritual father, parent, and guide.
The uncanonical decisions did not
cease even after the Elder’s exile to Šišatovac Monastery. There too, after
several months, in September 2010, they forbade him to conduct any divine
service whatsoever. And why did they forbid him? Only because the people had
begun coming in great numbers to the Divine Liturgies at the monastery where
our blessed Elder served. Realizing that there would be no end to the
uncanonical measures, that he could no longer submit to any uncanonical
decisions—to which, as he said, he had until then submitted solely for the sake
of peace in the Church—and seeing that he would not be summoned to the autumn
session of the Assembly that year, the Bishop returned to the territory of
Kosovo and Metohija and celebrated the well-known Divine Liturgy at Duboki
Potok Monastery. Thereafter followed events familiar to many: for the first
time in Serbian history, through a joint operation of the Šiptar and Serbian
police in Kosovo and Metohija, the monks and the Bishop were forcibly expelled from
Duboki Potok Monastery and driven from the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. In
fact, it was from that time, from the Feast of the Holy Archangel Michael in
2010, that the exile began.
The construction of so many
catacombs and monasteries is truly a miracle of God. The Eparchy in Exile is a
highly functional eparchy, with its own missionary and publishing activities.
We have more than forty catacombs, around 150 monks and nuns, fifteen
non-monastic priests, and thousands upon thousands of faithful, through whose
selfless assistance, sacrifice, effort, and labor we have accomplished what we
have accomplished, with the blessing of God and through the prayers of Saint
Sava and the other Serbian Saints and Saints of all Orthodoxy.
Serbian source online:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.