Plato (Serbian Orthodox Bishop)

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Icon of Saint Plato from Banja Luka

Plato ( Serbian - Cyrillic Платон , bourgeois Milivoje Jovanović / Миливоје аовановић; born September 29, 1874 in Belgrade , Principality of Serbia , Ottoman Empire ; † May 5, 1941 in Banja Luka , Independent State of Croatia ) was the Bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Banja Luka until he was murdered by the Croatian Ustaše in World War II . He was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church .

Life

Plato was born in 1874 as Milivoje Jovanović, the son of Ilija, an officer in the Serbian army, and Jelka (nee Sokolović). His parents were originally from Herzegovina . From 1896 to 1901 he studied at the Serbian Spiritual Academy in Moscow . From 1932 to 1938 he was editor of the church journal Voice of the Serbian Patriarchate (Serbian: Glasnika srpske patrijaršije / Гласника српске патриjаршије ) and from 1934 to 1936 Archimandrite of the Krušedol Monastery in the Frušedol .

In 1936 he was elected Bishop of Moravia (Serbian: moravički / моравички). His office in Banja Luka was preceded by his appointment as Bishop of Ohrid and Bitola in what is now Macedonia in 1938.

Bishop of Banja Luka

In 1939 he was sent to Banja Luka and on October 1, 1940, he was appointed bishop of the Banja Luka diocese. On April 27, 1941, the fascist Ustaša organization gave him the order to leave Banja Luka and generally the NDH for Serbia on the pretext that he was born in Belgrade . He replied in an open letter to the regional commander of the Croatian fascists, Viktor Gutić , that he had been legitimately elected Bishop of Banja Luka and that he had sworn no matter what the circumstances, no matter how unreal for him personally, God, the Church and to represent the people as bishops in spiritual matters. Viktor Gutić thereupon issued the order to murder. The Serbian bishop asked the Roman Catholic bishop Josip Garić to help with the request to use his influence. He also promised him support and told him that he had nothing to worry about. The following morning, May 5, 1941, he was kidnapped together with the church elder Dušan Subotić, six Ustaša disciples under the leadership of the butcher Celić. They were tortured and murdered about 5 to 10 km from Banja Luka on the Vrbanja River and thrown into the river.

He was buried on May 24, 1941 in the military cemetery in Banja Luka without any sign of his identity or even a funeral procession. On July 1, 1973, he was reburied and buried in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Banja Luka. Since he died a martyr under the circumstances, he was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church on May 21, 2000. In addition to the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Banja Luka, which was destroyed in the Second World War and later completely rebuilt, the Jasenovac concentration camp and the Donja Gradina belonging to it, it is a symbol of the suffering suffered by the Serbs during the Second World War.

Other sources

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Canonization and further information (Serbian)
  2. ^ Symbol for martyrdom in World War II