![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/\u0414\u0435\u0447\u0430\u043d\u04383.jpg\")
Healing of the sick Arnaut girl<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
July 1938 I was with my wife, now deceased, on a trip through Southern Serbia. On the way, we visited the De\u010dani monastery for the first time and stayed there for three days. During that time, we witnessed the miraculous healing of a sick 15 or 16-year-old Arnaut (Muslim\u2013ed.) girl. She was completely unable to move, and they brought her on a cart to the monastery gate, and from there carried her in on their hands and laid her in front of the kivot of the Holy King. One of the monks read prayers over her and anointed the main parts of her body with the oil from the votive candle above the kivot. After that, with his help, the little girl slowly stood up, kissed the remains of the saint and then slowly left the church on her own, and came to the car in the outer courtyard of the monastery.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/IMG_0153-1024x768.jpg\")
The holy king will not leave the monastery<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In the First World War (1914\u20131918), while the Serbian army was fighting a heavy battle against the Austro-Hungarian army and was retreating in the face of the far superior enemies to the south, the Bulgarians, who collaborated with Austria-Hungary and Germany and attacked the Serbian army from behind, penetrating towards Prizren and Pe\u0107, driving the Serbian army into the pathless Albanian ravines. When they reached De\u010dani in their pursuit, their first concern was to loot the monastery and transfer the relics of the holy king to Sofia, thus taking revenge on him for his victory over their emperor Michael Shishman on Velbazhd on 28 July 1330.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They planned to hurry and reach De\u010dani before the Austro-Hungarian and German armies, and loot the holy place, because according to the agreement between the Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian governments on the division of Serbia’s territory, the western part of South Serbia (the area from Kosovska Mitrovica to Pe\u0107 and \u0110akovica) had to belong to Austria-Hungary. After arriving in De\u010dani, the Bulgarians looted the monastery, then loaded four monks (of Russian nationality) into one car, the remains of the holy king into another, and a military guard into the third, and left the monastery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When they arrived in the village of De\u010dani (2 km away on the Pe\u0107-\u0110akovica road), the first car with the monks continued to \u0110akovica, and the second, with the remains of the holy king, stopped at the crossroads and remained motionless. All efforts of the driver and his assistant to get the car started were in vain. Many people gathered to watch what was happening. The Serbs cried out, and the Arnauts were surprised. While the Bulgarians struggled for hours in vain, an Austro-Hungarian cavalry scout appeared from Pe\u0107 and galloped up to the Bulgarian cars. When the commander of the reconnaissance found out what was going on, he warned the Bulgarians about their loyalty to their allies and ordered them to stay away from the holy king. Then he ordered that the kivot with the remains be taken out of the car and given to the Serbs to return it to the monastery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Serbs joyfully returned the holy king to the monastery, and the Bulgarians got into the car, whose engine now started easily, and drove away embarrassed. Seeing what happened, an old Arnaut said to the gathered Arnauts: “You see, the Holy King will not leave De\u010dani. The Serbs are coming again. Watch what you’re doing!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n On November 24, the Serbian Orthodox Church observes the feast day of St King Stefan of De\u010dani. The history of one of the most famous Serbian medieval monasteries, Visoki De\u010dani, takes us back to the first half of the 14th century. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":107079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"On November 24, the Serbian Orthodox Church observes the feast day of St King Stefan of De\u010dani. The history of one of the most famous Serbian medieval monasteries, Visoki De\u010dani, takes us back to the first half of the 14th century. ","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"2","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar-narrow","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-normal","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-715","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-715"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"511"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,805],"tags":[21236,9535,9108,14454,14455,21240],"class_list":["post-172413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-foreground","tag-church-holidays","tag-faith","tag-kosovo-and-metohija","tag-serbian-orthodox-church-2","tag-spc-2","tag-visoki-decani-2"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Vaskrs-Decani-1024x576.jpg\")