Karamatievich, Eustathius

The Early Years: Church Service

Born in the family of father John and mother Rieta on November 30, 1883 in the city of Nova Varosh , Novobazar Sanjak of the Ottoman Empire. He graduated from four classes of the Skopje gymnasium in 1904. He was ordained a priest in 1907, and graduated from the Theological and Teaching School of Prizren in 1908. He was a member of the Diocesan Administrative Committee of the Dabro-Bosan Metropolitanate and received the rank of Archpriest. From his youth, father Eustathius was one of the active fighters for the freedom of Sanjak and Old Vlach, for which he was arrested by the Turkish authorities and soon expelled from the country.

Serbian Army Service

Father Eustathius did not stop his attempts to help the Serbs of Macedonia. He joined the Serbian army as a regimental priest. He participated in the Balkan Wars and in 1912 became the instigator of the uprising in Nova Varosha. During World War I he served on the Thessaloniki Front, fought in Albania and, together with the Serbian army, took refuge on the Greek island of Corfu, for which he was awarded the Albanian Commemorative Medal of the Kingdom of Serbia.

Activities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

Literature

After the formation of Yugoslavia, father Eustathius became an active socio-political figure. He published a number of historical materials on the history of Serbia, among which stand out “Description of the Churches” of Old Vlach, a monograph on the monastery of St. Sava in the village of Mileshevo, a study on iconographic schools in the villages of Toci and Nicolas, as well as a number of articles on the correspondence of the princes Rashkovichi with Count Rumyantsev , Prince Potemkin and Empress Catherine II . His articles were published in the magazines Tsarigradsky Glasnik, Bosanska Vila, Uchiteљ, Pravda, Stamp, Politics, and Sangak.

Charity

Father Eustathius became the founder of a number of cultural societies: Zora, Srpska omladina, Shooting squad, etc. He also owns the idea of ​​creating a falcon movement in Nova Varosha and opening a city library there. He was actively involved in charity work, helping to teach children from poor families: with his help, a boarding school “Knegiњa Zorka”, a gymnasium in Nova Varosha and Sokolsky House were opened there.

Policy

Father Eustathius supported in Yugoslavia, first the Democratic Party , and then the Independent Democratic Party of Yugoslavia .

Liberation War

In 1941, Germany declared war on Yugoslavia and invaded the territory of the country. In April, Archpriest Eustathius joined the anti-fascist movement, having moved to Bosnia, where he appealed several times with a call to unite all Orthodox Serbs regardless of their position in society, as well as to support everyone who is ready to fight the German occupiers. He also sent letters to all the priests of Yugoslavia. He began serving as a priest at the 3rd proletarian Sanjak shock brigade , and then was transferred to the 37th Sanjak division . In 1942, he was elected to the Anti-Fascist Chamber of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (at the 2nd meeting he was elected a member of the Presidium), and then to the Anti-Fascist Chamber of Sanjak.

In 1944, while in Belo-Pole, Archpriest Eustathius wrote a letter to the locum tenens of the Russian Orthodox Church Alexy , asking him to give all possible help to the Serbian people to expel the German, Croatian and Hungarian fascist invaders from the country, and also described in detail what they were doing in occupied cities Germans, Croats, Italians and Hungarians and how they treated the secular population and priests. Soon, the Soviet delegation arrived in the city of Polpe, which Archpriest Karamatievich was happy to meet, saying at the meeting, “Now let go of your servant, Vladyka!”

After the war: the last years of life

After the war, Archpriest Eustathius was elected to the National Assembly of Serbia, and also took the post of deputy chairman of the Yugoslav Red Cross. Soon, he led the delegation of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which visited the Soviet Union.

On April 9, 1948, Archpriest Eustathius passed away. He was buried in the New cemetery of Belgrade.

Family

His wife was Efimia, a well-known public activist. In the marriage they had children: daughters Zoritsa, Kaya, Natalia and sons Vuk and Proslav . All of them participated in the People’s Liberation War: Efimia died during the bombing, and Zoritsa and her two children became a victim of the air raid. Kaya fell in the battle of Sutjeske , fighting against the Germans, and Natalia died at the hands of the Chetniks . The war survived Prvoslav, who became a famous artist, whose work was shown at numerous international exhibitions.

• Srpski biographical river boat (Kњiga Chetvrta) . “Mother of the Union”, Novi Sad 2009, 853. p.

• Život sa Bekimom (Serb.)
• LETTER OF THE YUGOSLAV PROPIRE EVSTAF KARAMATIEVICH, MEMBER OF THE PRESIDIUM OF THE ANTIFASCHIST CENTURY OF THE PEOPLE'S EXEMPTION OF YUGOSLAVIA IN THE NAME OF THE PATRIARIUM LOCATOR (Russian)
• Serbian Holocaust victims (Russian)