Belgrade, October 21, 2011
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“Today also we are paying with our lives for our Fatherland,” said the Serbian Patriarch.
“This monument should remind us that we must never forget our great martyrs and ancestors, who gave their whole lives for their country, their Fatherland, for freedom, and their faith. Only they can do this who know what freedom means, what their Fatherland means, for the sake of which life is worth living, for the sake of which it is worth giving their lives. Therefore, may glory be to all heroes and martyrs, who consciously and with love laid down their lives for their faith and Fatherland. May this be an example to us of how we must love our country, and if necessary, how we must give our lives for it. This is a sacred duty, to which those who died for our sake call us… We thank them for this; and we, brothers and sisters, will not forget them… Let them be an example to us during today’s trials of how we must love our country, our people, and our sacred sites….
“Today we are undergoing the same trials. Today, they are offering us entry into Europe, but at a terrible price—that we renounce Kosovo and Metochia. But who are we if we renounce our holy lands? Does a man live if they cut off his head? And what is a man if they tear out his heart? What will happen to that man?... And what is Serbia without Kosovo and Metochia? Unfortunately, this is a great temptation… I do not know what our people are thinking, but if we must enter Europe only by sacrificing Kosovo and Metochia, then we had better just thank them for their kindness and love, but let them leave us alone, let them at least not do what they did to us recently, but let our Kosovo remain with us.
“This whole land is soaked and red with blood,” the Patriarch emphasized, “from the battle of Kosovo to the present day. Can we, do we dare to renounce what is most sacred to us—our Jerusalem, our Holy Land? We do not dare to allow this… Those who were once our friends, or at any rate, so we thought, today are no longer our friends. Today they are taking away from us what is most precious, most sacred, and exalted. Thanks a lot for such a friendship.”
The day before, on the feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, Patriarch Irenej visited Kosovo and Metochia, and presided at the festal services in the Patriarchate of Pec, where scores of the relics of Serbian holy hierarchs and patriarchs rest.
