The three-day commemoration of the Holy Martyrs of Prebilovci and Herzegovina began this evening with the opening of the exhibition titled “Resurrection Is Stronger Than Death” in the courtyard of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Prebilovci.
The exhibition features a collection of previously unseen documents and photographs that chronicle the history of the memorial church in Prebilovci and its new life after its consecration in 2015.
The exhibition was curated by Hieromonk Teofil Petrović.
“This exhibition, along with these panels of photographs and fragments of frescoes from the Prebilovci church, testifies to the resurrection that has been taking place here from 2015 to this day,” said Hieromonk Teofil at the opening.
The event also included a lecture by priest Oliver Subotić from Belgrade titled “On Tesla’s Ancestors and His Herzegovinian Friends.”
The opening was attended by His Eminence Metropolitan Dimitrije of Zahumlje and Herzegovina.
On the feast day of the Holy Martyrs of Prebilovci and Lower Herzegovina, August 6, a solemn hierarchical liturgy will be served at 9:00 a.m. in the church, officiated by several bishops.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the consecration of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, which was built and consecrated in 2015 in memory of around 4,000 Serbs from Lower Herzegovina murdered by the Ustaše during World War II. That same year, the Serbian Orthodox Church canonized these victims.
The holiday is observed on the date when, in 1941, the Ustaše brutally killed over 850 residents of this village—mostly women and children—and threw them into a pit in Šurmanci near Međugorje.
This crime was concealed in the former Yugoslavia, and in 1961 the pits where the Serbs had been thrown were cemented over.
The excavation of 13 mass graves across Lower Herzegovina began in 1990, and the remains of more than 4,000 Serbs were buried in a memorial ossuary in Prebilovci on August 4, 1991.
In June 1992, during the “Čagalj” offensive, members of the HOS and HVO forces blew up the memorial ossuary.
After the return of Serbs to Prebilovci post-2000, the remains were recovered, and after the construction of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, they were laid to rest in its crypt.
The church was built with the support of Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik and donations from Serbs in the diaspora.
It was modeled after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a symbol of resurrection and life.
Source: RTRS
