Monastery Of The Holy Trinity

Montenegro, without a doubt, is one of the countries where there is a huge number of holy places filled with hidden secrets and God's grace. On its territory there are still ancient temples of Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire and the rule of other conquerors. One of such settlements in Montenegro, in which the destinies of the East and the West intertwined, and which is equally close to both Christians and Muslims, is the town of Pljevlja. Two sacred places of different religions, two historical, archaeological and cultural monuments, which became a symbol of the city - the Orthodox monastery of the Holy Trinity and the mosque of Hussein-Pasha Boliani, are located here. In this article we will tell you about Holy Trinity Monastery of Plevsky.
 

Holy Trinity Pleven Monastery.

The Orthodox monastery of the Holy Trinity (Serbian Manastir Sveta Trojitsa Puevska) is a monastery of the Mileshevsky diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is located in the north of Montenegro, 2 km from the town of Plelev, 61 km. from Durmitor National Park and 36 km from the famous Montenegrin landmarks - Djurdjevic Bridge over the Tara River.

The history of the monastery of the Holy Trinity.

The monastery of the Holy Trinity in Plelev was roughly built in the 15th century. The first documented mention of the monastery in the annals dates back to 1537, although some researchers indicate the date of foundation even before the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1465. This assumption was confirmed in the study of prominent orientalist Adem Khandzic. He cites two Turkish sources - one of 1468, and the second in 1477-1479, in which it was noted that there are Orthodox churches in several newly conquered settlements - Pljevlja, Chajnice, Gorazde, Novi Pazar, and Visegrad.

Constant wars in the territory of present Montenegro led to the fact that the monastery was repeatedly destroyed, rebuilt and rebuilt. Today's appearance he found only in the XVI century, during the restoration of 1875-1886, and already with all subsequent restructuring people did not violate its traditional appearance. At the same time, under the rector of Vissarion, the Church of the Holy Trinity was built, an ascetic building with a single dome. Its external feature is the rich notched carving, characteristic for the architectural style of Raschka and fresco painting, made in 1600 by the famous Balkan master Strahinya from Budiml. The frescoes, which have been decently preserved to this day, depict scenes from the Holy Scriptures, the representatives of the Nemanjic dynasty and the Suffering of Christ. On the southern wall of the nave is depicted the ktitor Visarion (Vasilye) with the model of the church in hands, before Christ. On the north-western side of the nave, the representatives of the Nemanjic dynasty are depicted: Stephen Nemanja (as a monk Simeon), Saint Sabbas of Serbia and Stefan Uros III of Dechansky. Until now, the magnificent iconostasis of the same period has survived.

Throughout its long history, the monastery of the Holy Trinity was the spiritual, cultural and educational center of the entire nearby district, a place for decoding and censusing of many ancient books, as well as a workshop for performing artwork on wood and creating objects of decorative and applied art not only for Plevly, but for all Montenegro. Here was written not one dozen books, and still in the library of the monastery stored tracts and manuscripts of the XII-XIV centuries.
 In the XVI-XVIII centuries the monastery acquired the fame of a major literary center and a place where religious books were manually written. The most famous works of the monastery scribes: "Shestodnev" by John Exarch and Kozma Indicoplova, "Verhobrezhnitsky chronograph" and other collections of psalms. Many manuscript books were provided with illustrations by Andrei Raichevich, a local icon painter who worked at the monastery in the middle of the 17th century.

In addition to the literary treasures in the sacristy of the Holy Trinity Monastery, today there are many ancient treasures: a magnificent collection of icons of the local painter Andrei Raichevich, expensive old church utensils, artifacts from silver, gold and wood, censer of the work of Venetian masters, Patriarch Varnava's miter, and the special pride of the repository is the cane of St. Sava, covered with a metal frame.
Even before the Turks attacked the country, the relics of the great saint Savva of Serbia, who is revered not only in Serbia, but everywhere in the Orthodox East, including in Russia, were kept in the Mileshev monastery. However, when there was a threat of Turkish raids, the monks from Mileshev, taking with them their shrine, leave their monastery. It was hard for them to carry a kiot with the relics of Sawa, and then they placed it in the ark and left it near the road near Pliev. In the meantime, we reached the monastery of the Holy Trinity and informed the local monks about it, the kiot found a peasant passing by. The peasant decided that this chest might be useful to him - he took it with him, put it in his barn, having put apples there for storage. Surprisingly, apples, lying until the summer, did not deteriorate in any way and miraculously smelled of peace. Once a peasant went to the monastery of the Holy Trinity, he brought the apples to the monks. The monks began to question where he had fresh apples at such a time. The peasant told them about that most magical trunk. The monks asked for the chest as a gift, since it was not a simple chest, but a kiot with the relics of the most holy Sawa of Serbia. And now it is kept in the monastery of the kyot, in which lies the staff of Sawa.

To reach the functioning monastery of the Holy Trinity in Plevl is quite simple. From the city to it is laid a convenient footpath. Monks are glad to all visitors, and many pilgrims to holy places from different countries often stop to spend the night or rest in a hospitable monastery.
 

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