As we enter the days of spiritual preparation for the Great Fast, we are pleased to present a new project titled “Eternity in a Millennium.” This series of articles will be dedicated to the oldest monastic community in southern Serbia-the Monastery of Venerable Prohor of Pčinja. This significant initiative will be led and edited by Marija Stanković, a longtime contributor to the Kinonia missionary portal, whose many years of dedicated work in preserving and promoting the spiritual heritage of the Diocese of Vranje have earned her an honorary Gramata from the Metropolitan of Vranje.
Beginning on March 6, 2025, and continuing on the first Thursday of each month, visitors to the Kinonia portal will have the opportunity to explore the history and significance of this holy site through a series of carefully curated articles.
Introductory Text by Marija Stanković
“Eternity in a Millennium” is a series of articles that explores the history of the oldest monastery in southern Serbia. The Monastery of Saint Prohor of Pčinja marked its 950th anniversary in 2020. The history of this monastery has been one of struggle and suffering. According to historical records, it was built in 1070 by Byzantine Emperor Romanos Diogenes during his four-year reign. The monastery church was originally dedicated to Saint Luke the Evangelist, and it became the resting place of the myrrh-streaming relics of Saint Prohor of Pčinja.
Saint Prohor was a contemporary and friend of Saint John of Rila and Saint Gabriel of Lesnovo. He was born in the first half of the 11th century and lived a life of asceticism in the Kozjak mountain for thirty years. According to tradition, he reposed in a cave, where his hermitage still stands today. As part of the monastery’s 950th anniversary celebrations, a wooden church dedicated to Saint Sisoes the Great was built at the site of his hermitage.
Tradition also tells of Saint Prohor’s prophetic encounter with Emperor Romanos Diogenes. While the emperor was still a hunter, he met the saint in the mountains. Prohor prophesied that he would become an emperor and urged him to remember him when the prophecy was fulfilled. When Diogenes ascended the throne, he honoured the saint by founding the monastery. From the moment the relics of Saint Prohor were enshrined in the church, myrrh has continuously flowed from them, bringing healing to the faithful.
The monastery’s treasury houses some of the oldest spiritual books and sacred objects, although many were lost during the Ottoman occupation and the time of the Bulgarian Exarchate. Among the monastic brotherhood of Prohor of Pčinja was the Venerable Justin Popović of Vranje, who was glorified as a saint by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2010. The monastery still preserves a copy of “Dogmatics,” authored by Saint Justin, which he gifted to the monastery in 1935.
Throughout the upcoming months, visitors to the Kinonia portal will have the chance to delve into the rich history, unique features, and spiritual significance of this sacred monastery and its patron saint. These texts, forming the “Eternity in a Millennium” project, will be published monthly, offering a deeper insight into one of the most important spiritual and historical landmarks of Serbian Orthodoxy.
