Moscow, June 29, 2017
Photo: spbda.ru The St. Petersburg Theological Academy was visited on Wednesday by Bishop Joanikije (Micovic) of Budimlja and Nikšić of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The hierarch visited the school in order to present a gift of an icon of its holy graduate of 1916—the first Serbian bishop of America and Canada St. Mardarije (Uskokovic), reports the academy’s site.
Vladyka Joanikije recalled that the relics of St. Mardarije were found to be incorrupt last month at St. Sava's Monastery in Libertyville, IL.
Photo: spbda.ru St. Mardarije was a Serbian Orthodox bishop who served tirelessly in America to build up the fledgling Church. He was officially proclaimed a saint by the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church on May 29, 2015, and his glorification ceremony will take place July 14-16, 2017 at St. Sava Monastery.
His relics were opened on May 5 in the church at St. Sava’s, which he himself had built, and where he was buried following his repose in 1935.
Photo: spbda.ru In response, the school’s grateful dean Archbishop Ambrose (Ermakov) gave Bp. Joanikije an icon of the Arhyz Face of Christ.
The St. Petersburg Theological Academy and the Serbian Orthodox Church have had very good relations for many years, thanks in part to the fact that several of the school’s graduates have edified the Serbian Church in recent times and are now numbered among the saints.
