Written by: Catechist Branislav Ilić
On the festive day when the Church liturgically commemorates the translation of the relics of Saint George the Great-Martyr, the Victorious and Wonderworker, from Nicomedia to Lydda in Palestine, all inhabitants of the City of Novi Sad celebrate their city’s patronal feast. During the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great, the pious Christians of Lydda built a magnificent church dedicated to Saint George. At the consecration of that church, the saint’s wonderworking and myrrh-streaming relics were translated into it. In the Life of Saint George, we encounter testimonies of innumerable miracles that occurred before the saint’s holy relics. Truly great is the love of God made manifest through His holy saints who became genuine vessels of divine grace. When reading about the great miracles, appearances, intercessions, and signs of Saint George the Great-Martyr, human logic pauses and human speech falls silent, for that wondrous river of God’s love and mercy surpasses every human category. Standing before Saint George, we glorify the Lord with the following words: “Great are You, O Lord, and wondrous are Your works, and no human word is able to recount all Your wonders.”
Saint George the Great-Martyr keeps prayerful vigil over all the inhabitants of Novi Sad. Today the second-largest city in Serbia, Novi Sad arose beneath the so-called “Petrovaradin Rock,” a small Pannonian mountain of Fruška Gora. The first testimony of a settlement in this location dates to 1694, two years after construction began on the Petrovaradin Fortress. Precisely there, on the “Danube Gibraltar,” at the 1255th kilometre of the river, the Central European Habsburg Monarchy rose from the ashes following the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. The earliest known name of the settlement was Racsko (Serbian) Village, and somewhat later it became known as the Petrovaradin Schanz. When the settlement expanded after the end of wars in the early 18th century—more precisely, on 1 February 1748—its inhabitants purchased, for 80,000 florins, from Empress Maria Theresa the status of a free royal city, at which time the name “Novi Sad” appeared for the first time. At the beginning of the 19th century, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić stated that Novi Sad was “the largest Serbian community in the world.”
From the moment the city was organized, its inhabitants showed great care above all for their spiritual life, a concern most clearly expressed in the building of splendid churches. The first Orthodox churches erected in Novi Sad were the Church of Saint Nicholas, located near today’s Matica Srpska building; the Cathedral Church of Saint George; the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God; and the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs, better known as the Almaška Church. Later, other churches were built, and thanks be to God, new places of worship continue to be established in Novi Sad today, where the bloodless sacrifice—the Holy Eucharist—is offered upon their altars.
Naturally, along with churches and other ecclesiastical edifices, schools were also erected, as evidenced by the fact that in the 19th century Novi Sad had two gymnasiums. From its earliest days the city nurtured a rich and well-established cultural life. In 1845 the Serbian Reading Room was founded, and in 1861 the Serbian National Theatre opened its door to the public. A particularly important event occurred in 1864, when Matica Srpska was relocated from Budapest to Novi Sad. Matica Srpska, the oldest Serbian cultural institution of the modern era, was founded in Budapest in 1826. Within its sphere of activity other institutions also developed, such as the Matica Srpska Library, the Matica Srpska Gallery, the Museum of Vojvodina, the Museum of the City of Novi Sad, and many others.
The soul, or the very heart, of Novi Sad is the Cathedral Church dedicated to Saint George the Great-Martyr, the Victorious and Wonderworker. At the very beginning of Pašićeva Street in Novi Sad, the Cathedral is situated between the Bishop’s Court and the Platoneum. Beneath the sacred vaults of this magnificent church, many hierarchs of the Church of God in the Diocese of Bačka have been enthroned, and from 1740 to 1955 eight bishops of Bačka were buried in the cathedral crypt. Until September of the year of the Lord 2022, Saint Ireneus, Bishop of Bačka and Confessor of the Faith, also rested in the cathedral crypt; his holy relics now repose in a reliquary placed before the throne of the Mother of God in the same Cathedral Church.
The Orthodox inhabitants of Novi Sad solemnly celebrate the commemoration of Saint George the Great-Martyr, first on 23 April / 6 May, when the cathedral’s patronal feast is festively observed, and also on 3 / 16 November, when the City of Novi Sad celebrates its patronal feast.
Just as our families, as domestic churches, celebrate their krsna slava, and just as every church and the liturgical community gathered within it has its own patron saint, so also every city has its own city feast. On the festive day when the inhabitants of a city celebrate their heavenly intercessor, prayers are offered for health, salvation, well-being, peace, joy, love, and every form of prosperity. The celebration of a city’s slava is not, nor can it ever be, a custom made up of transient external forms; this prayerful celebration is always founded upon the Holy Liturgy and the communion of the faithful, where it receives its essence and meaning. Just as the Most Holy Mother of God shelters the Primatial City of Belgrade, as Saint Demetrius the Great-Martyr has for centuries safeguarded the City of Thessaloniki, Sremska and Kosovska Mitrovica, as Saint Constantine the Great watches over his native city—today’s Niš—and as Saint Procopius warms with his love the hearts of all the inhabitants of Prokuplje, so too Saint George the Great-Martyr keeps prayerful vigil over all who dwell in the City of Novi Sad.
Striving to emulate the example of the victorious Saint George, together with the Church’s poet we praise him with the following words: “Armed with the breastplate of faith, the shield of grace, and the Cross as a spear, you were invincible against your foes, O George. As a holy warrior you defeated the demonic hosts, and now you rejoice with the angels, you guard and sanctify the faithful, and you save all who call upon you.”