During May a group from Christ Church visited the Serbian Orthodox Church in the second district. We were warmly welcomed by our guide Miroljub Gligoric. Soon thereafter we were joined by one of the iconographers of the church Uglĵeša Mileta who together with his wife is presently working on the frescoes in the church’s refectory. Members of the group could echo this sentiment. The step towards appreciating the best of Orthodoxy is not such a big one to take and very worthwhile.
The church in the second district is one of three Serbian Orthodox churches in Vienna. It is dedicated to the Resurrection. An imposing fresco of the Resurrection behind the iconostasis and the altar dominates the church. It is based on the famous fresco of the Resurrection in the Chora monastery in Istanbul. One detail was new to me namely that the Risen Christ grasps the wrists and not the hands of Adam and Eve whom he is pulling out of Hades. This detail is there to remind the believer that the work of our redemption is God’s work alone. Other frescoes of particular interest on this occasion were the Birth of Jesus, the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, the White Angel and the Transfiguration.
The fresco of the Transfiguration is particularly apt because the church is former tram garage that has been wonderfully transformed into a church that shows forth some of the glories of the Orthodox tradition. The fresco of the White Angel is based on a detail from a fresco in the Mileševa monastery, Serbia. The original dates from about 1230. It depicts an angel sitting in front of the Empty Tomb. The White Angel has been adopted as an emblem by the United Nations
Before we retired to the rectory for further conversation and refreshments Miroljub sang parts of the liturgy in Church Slavonic. He is a cantor in the church and currently writing his doctoral dissertation. In the refectory we heard how both Miljoub and Uglĵeša came to embrace the faith of their ancestors having grown-up in communist Yugoslavia. Miroljub mentioned the film The Time of Miracles based on the novel of the same name by Borislav Pekić as being influential. We also heard about Saint Nikolaj Velimirović (1881 – 1956) who was Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča, imprisoned in Dachau by the Nazis and at the end of the war not permitted to return to Yugoslavia. Hearing something about the life of Saint Nikolaj was appropriate as he studied in Oxford and enjoyed very good relationships with the Anglican Church in Britain and America. The title of his doctorate was Berkeley’s Philosophy.
We came away enriched by our brief encounter with Orthodoxy lamenting the divisions of Christianity into a Latin West and an Orthodox East, but joyful to have met a living church rich in history, art, culture and fuelled by the faith that the Risen Christ brings - a faith that both Miroljub and Uglĵeša were eager to share with us and the world.
