Knežina Monastery

The Knežina Monastery near Sokolac is one of the oldest Orthodox temples in the area and one of the newer monasteries where both the clergy and the faithful have long expected a mountain-style parish home to be built with a residence. The monastery church is dedicated to the Holy Equal Emperor Constantine and Empress Jelena. According to folk tradition, as evidenced by the plaque at the entrance to the church, the original temple was the endowment of Mrnjavčević, the votive church of Andrew, brother of Marko Kraljevic, built in 1371 after the Battle of Marika. Jeromonah Vladimir Djuricic has been a devotee of this temple since December 2015, which he says is a gathering place for believers and a spiritual center, despite the fact that young people from this area are increasingly going to cities and the surrounding villages are slowly becoming empty and old. During his visit to the temple, Srina emphasized that this Orthodox shrine also shared the destiny and torment of the Serbian people in this region, was devastated and restored several times in war events, and remained a spiritual center and inspiration for Orthodox believers in their prayers and hopes. "The Principality as a parish was on the brink of a diocese and very often the priests changed hands and in no way could good continuity and cooperation be created in which the priest needed to bring people into the soul and the people of him in order to make the living church of Christ stronger," monasteries. He is pleased that, despite the departure of the population from the village of the Parish Parish, a large number return to the family estates and visit the monastery for the temple glory of Emperor Constantine and Empress Jelena on June 3 and for the monastery council, which since 2015 is held on the second Sunday after Panteleimon 9 August. Jeromonah points out that the temple is a gathering place for believers from 18 neighboring villages, especially those in which the younger population such as Sparrows and Krusevci stayed, and that he holds services several times a year in the border villages of Ajdinovici, Krajisici and Krusevci and in the church in Lead. He recalled that His Highness the Metropolitan of Dabrobosan Chrysostom, after the September Holy Bishops' Liturgy in this temple, wished - "for the holy family of the monastery in the Principality to develop a little more, to multiply the brotherhood and to truly experience what one had imagined before, here in Romania. we have a wonderful monastery that talks a lot and says a lot. " The monastery teacher points out that the idea of ​​building a parish home in the Principality was initiated by the Church Board in 1975 and that the building has not been built to this day, although a few years ago a project was made in which the faithful would gather and mark significant dates with their priests. He recalled that Metropolitan Chrysostom, while still a Bishop of Zvornik-Tuzla, suggested that a mountain-style parish home with a konak be built in the Principality, as expected by the clergy and believers of the Metropolitan of Dabrobosan.

According to the tradition, as evidenced by the foundations, the former monastery was built in 1371 at the source of the Principality. The builder of the monastery was Andrijaš, the brother of Marko Kraljević, and the monastery was destroyed by the Ottomans. The present temple was built in 1962 on the foundations of a wooden church that was destroyed during World War II. The former damaged wooden church was built in 1926. In the time of Bishop Vasilije, in 1989, in the presence of 100,000 believers, the church was canonized and proclaimed the monastery of Knežina. In the immediate vicinity of the temple there are unexplored stećak tombstones, the thermal mineral spring Toplik, and an unexplored cave from which the river Bioštica springs.