Serbia in Light and Darkness

The aim of this volume is to give to the English-speaking people some glimpses into the past struggles, sufferings and hopes of the Serbian nation. I have tried to describe the Serbian life in light, in its peace, its peaceful work, its songs and prayers; in darkness, in its slavery, its sins, its resistance to evil and battle for freedom.

It is only the peoples which suffer themselves that can understand and sympathise deeply with the Serbian soul. I dedicate, therefore, the following pages to all those who suffer much in these times, and whose understandings are enlarged and human sympathies deepened by sufferings.

I will take this opportunity of expressing my warm and respectful thanks to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury for his kind assistance and generous commendation of my work in England.

My gratitude is due to the Rev. G.K.A. Bell and Dr. E. Marion Cox for their help in the revision of these pages.

NICHOLAI VELIMIROVIC.

London, April, 1916.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

PART I.

LECTURES ON SERBIA ENGLAND AND SERBIA SERBIA FOR CROSS AND FREEDOM SERBIA AT PEACE SERBIA IN ARMS

PART II.

FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN NATIONAL WISDOM

PART III.

FRAGMENTS OF SERBIAN POPULAR POETRY

ILLUSTRATIONS.

H.M. KING PETER CROWN PRINCE ALEXANDER PREMIER N. PASHITCH KING MILUTIN SOLDIER ON GUARD THE GOAT-HERD DURING TURKISH RULE IN SERBIA THE MONASTERY OF CETINJE THE SECOND SERBIAN REVOLUTION OF 1815 THE MONASTERY OF KALENIC SERBIAN SOLDIERS WITH AN ENGLISH NURSE SERBIAN OFFICERS UNDER ADRIANOPLE IN 1912 THE CATTLE MARKET A TYPICAL MONTENEGRIN LADY--H.M. QUEEN MILENA PEASANT TYPES THE SUPERIOR OF A MONASTERY KING PETER AND THE TURKISH GENERAL WOMEN DOING THE WORK OF MEN From a photograph by Underwood and Underwood SERBIAN WOMEN CARRYING WOUNDED From a photograph by kind permission of Mr. Crawford Price WAITING FOR A PLACE IN THE HOSPITAL From a photograph by Topical Press Agency "MY MOTHER."

SPLIET-SPALATO

A SERBIAN REFUGEE

SPINNING BY MOONLIGHT

DUBROVNIK-RAGUSA

PREFACE

BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

The presence of Father Nicholai Velimirovic in England during the last few months has brought to the many circles with which he has been in touch a new message and appeal enforced by a personality evoking an appreciation which glows more warmly the better he is known. But this little book is more than the revelation of a personality. It will be to many people the introduction to a new range of interest and of thought. He would be a bold man who would endeavour at present to limit or even to define what may be the place which the Serbia of coming years may hold in Eastern Europe as a link between peoples who have been widely sundered and between forces both religious and secular which for their right understanding have needed an interpreter. Of recent days the sculpture and the literature of Serbia have been brought to our doors, and England's admiration for both has drawn the two countries more closely together in a common struggle for the ideals to which that art and literature have sought to give expression. It is not, I think, untrue to say that to the average English home this unveiling of Serbia has been an altogether new experience. Father Nicholai's book will help to give to the revelation a lasting place in their minds, their hopes and their prayers.