With the arrival of your Holy Relics our Serbian land shall be enriched
(Gregory Camblak, Letter on the transfer of the relics to St. Petka's Monastery, 15th century)
On the 27th of October, Belgrade Fortress becomes an open-air church. Hundreds of people silently flock to Donji grad while the bells of the Church of the Ružica echo over the Sava and the Danube. This is what Belgrade does to pay homage to its patron saint, Saint Petka, to drink the water of her miraculous origin in a small chapel beneath a strong defensive wall. The remains of the Immaculate Mother of Paraskeva, or Sveta Petka as she is known in Belgrade, were brought to the city by a ship along the two rivers in the 15th century. This pious woman of Slovene origin was born in the 10th century in the Byzantine castle of Epivat, a day's walk from Istanbul. From her early youth she devoted herself to God and prayer, living as a hermitess in the greatest asceticism.
When she passed away in the 11th century, miracles began to occure at her tomb, and the saint's earthly remains were transferred to the Church of the Holy Apostles at the Castle of Kalikratija on the Sea of Marmara. Even then, Saint Petka attracted hundreds of pilgrims. Meanwhile, the crusaders and the Ottomans intented to conquer the Byzantine territories and provoked the unusual journey of Saint Petka's relics through the Orthodox lands. In the 13th century they were sent to Trnovo - the capital of the Bugarian Tsardom. When the Ottomans took over the castle, the relics were transported to Vidin in 1393, and after the fall of Vidin to Serbia: first to Kruševac, and then finally to Belgrade.
In the 14th century three women asked Sultan Bayezid for the saint's relicts: princess Milica, the widow of Prince Lazar, her close friend Jefimija, the first Serbian poetess and the author of the revered Praise to Prince Lazar, and Milica's youngest daughter Olivera, Bayezid's wife. At the beginning of the 15th century the Princess's son, the despot Stefan Lazarević, moved St. Petka's relics to Belgrade when he chose it as his capital.
At first they rested in the metropolitan church of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the lower part of Belgrade Fortress, but later the despot built a small church at the spring of the living water where the miracle worker remained until 1521, when the city was conquered by Suleiman the Magnificent, and Belgrade citizens were moved to the vicinity of Istanbul. The unfortunate fugitives took with them all their holy objects, including the relics of Saint Petka.
The relics were kept in the Patriarchate of Constantinople until 1641, when they were bought by the Wallachian Duke Vasilije Lupul, thus saving the impoverished Patriarchate, and were transferred to the Black Sea city of Jassi in the present-day Romania, where they remain until this day.
Permanent exhibitions:
Tuesday-Saturday: 10.00-18.00
Kino Partizan temporary exhibition centre:
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