Father of Ohio Priest Canonized by Orthodox Church

c. 2005 Religion News Service ZITOMISLICI, Bosnia-Herzegovina _ Orthodox faithful in at least one slice of America can feel a little closer to heaven today. The Serbian Orthodox Church, led by Patriarch Pavle, canonized the father of a Cleveland-area priest in an elaborate ceremony Sunday that elevated 30 martyrs of the Second World War to […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

ZITOMISLICI, Bosnia-Herzegovina _ Orthodox faithful in at least one slice of America can feel a little closer to heaven today.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, led by Patriarch Pavle, canonized the father of a Cleveland-area priest in an elaborate ceremony Sunday that elevated 30 martyrs of the Second World War to sainthood.


Pavle kissed an icon of the 30 martyrs, then held it up for the benefit of the thousands packing the grounds of the monastery here. He passed it around for the other church hierarchs to venerate. Then he did the same with an icon of the Rev. Budimir Sokolovic, father of the Rev. Vasilije Sokolovic of St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma, Ohio.

And it became official. The men who died for their faith were entered into a select pantheon of saints declared to have led lives so holy that believers may pray to them for inspiration and divine protection. From now on, every July 11, Serbian Orthodox worshippers around the world can celebrate the feast of St. Budimir of Dobrun and the other martyrs of the Second World War.

A beatific smile graced the face of St. Budimir’s 67-year-old son as the church to which they both devoted their lives officially declared that his father was with God in heaven. The Rev. Vasilije Sokolovic had just turned 7 when his father was murdered and dumped in a shallow, unmarked grave by communist forces in 1945.

“Wonderful, really unbelievable,” a still beaming Sokolovic said after the service. “Thank God for glorifying my father who suffered so much during World War II. Thank God for everything.”

The service, which took place under a heavy police presence with checkpoints at several intersections leading up to the monastery, was historic in several respects.

For the Serbian Orthodox Church, the ability to investigate the causes of sainthood of the World War II martyrs and then celebrate their lives in a majestic public service was a sign of new religious freedom.

For a war-torn land, it was meaningful that the service was held at the Zitomislici Monastery, which was destroyed by anti-Serbian forces during the Balkan Wars in the early 1990s. Its rebuilding is considered an important sign of the desire to respect Orthodox, Muslim and Catholic holy sites wherever they are. The canonization service was done in tandem with the consecration of the restored monastery.


In his sermon, Pavle called on his flock to live in peace with all people of goodwill and to anticipate that others will live in peace and goodwill with them. If people had more love for one another, Pavle said, there would be much less need for hospitals and prisons.

Sokolovic, in honoring his father with the writing of a troparion, a short poetic hymn for the feast day, lifted up the theme of peace. It says in part: “Our father Budimir, pray to Christ God to gift us with universal peace and great mercy upon our souls.”

St. Budimir of Dobrun was born in 1910 in the village of Tegare. Budimir graduated from the seminary at age 21 and became the 41st generation of priests in the Sokolovic family. He was the parish priest in Dobrun from 1936 until he and his family were taken to a concentration camp in 1941.

A few months later, they moved as refugees to Serbia. Then Budimir went off to serve as a chaplain to the non-communist Serbian partisans. He lived to see the expulsion of the Nazis, but then he was imprisoned and killed by communists, who feared the influence of prominent clerics.

Back home in Ohio, the spiritual journey is only beginning for the Orthodox faithful who find in this beloved pastor and his father an extraordinary personal example of faith tested in fire. Many already have ordered icons of St. Budimir and plan to place them in their homes as sources of inspiration.

“He was steadfast. He died for his faith. He did not falter. He gave his life for his faith,” said Josephine Vuich, a member of St. Sava. “This is the basis of our faith. We do not deny the living God.”


Church members said in recent interviews that they were thrilled for their former pastor, who retired in 2000 for health reasons.

“It’s just wonderful, said Ann Porterfield, who noticed Sokolovic has worn a big smile on his face ever since getting word his father would be named a saint.

In Orthodox theology, saints and their icons can be considered windows into heaven. Theologians say the lives of the saints assure the faithful of the power and the grace of Christ being present in every age, and their example can inspire others to deepen their own faith.

The Rev. Milorad Orlic of St. George Serbian Orthodox Church in Lorain, Ohio, accompanied Sokolovic to the canonization service.

Orlic said Sunday he felt a range of emotions: “Joy that we have so holy an individual that is so closely tied to us through the Sokolovic family; sadness at the means of his death and the continued suffering in this region;” pride as an Orthodox Christian that such an individual is being glorified; and even a little trepidation at the standard St. Budimir set for other clergy to be prepared to lay down their lives for their faith.

The ties to Northeast Ohio help remind the faithful here of the importance of living not just good, but holy lives, he said. “Saints are contemporaries as well. They’re not just people who lived centuries ago.”


LF/JL END RNS

(David Briggs is religion reporter for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. He can be contacted at dbriggs(at)plaind.com.)

Editors: Check the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for photos to accompany this story.

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