Mardarius (Uskokovich)

After 9 years of studying at a secular school, he became a novice in the Studenica monastery , where, with the blessing of the Bishop of ичiča Savva (Barach), in 1909 he became a monk and ordained to the rank of hierodeacon .

Metropolitan Serbian Demetrius aims to serve at the courtyard of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Moscow.

Soon he entered the Volyn Theological Seminary (located in Zhytomyr ), but transferred to the Chisinau Theological Seminary , which he graduated in 1912.

In the same year he was elevated to the dignity of the Syncell of Metropolitan of Montenegro and entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy (since 1914) ^[2] .

Vice-Chairman of the All-Russian Russian-Montenegrin Charity Society. During his studies at the Academy, as a secondment to the Holy Synod, he delivered lectures as a delegate to the All-Russian Guardianship of Slavic Captives.

In 1916 he graduated from the Petrograd Theological Academy with a degree of candidate of theology . He taught at the Slavic gymnasium of Professor Gribovsky.

From the testimony of S.P. Beletsky of the ChSK of the Provisional Government (06.24.1917):

I was not familiar with this monk. Gathering information about him, I instructed A.A. Kon, having met him, to give me his description. A.A. Cohn and his father Mardarius got together quite closely, became interested in him and began to suggest to me that he was a special person, starting from the exterior and ending with the warehouse of his spiritual worldview. Personally, my impression of meeting my father Mardarius and the information I received about him drew a slightly different image of this monk, who carefully considered his every step. Then I knew that Father Mardarius took an active part in the circle of gr. Ignatieva was adopted in many other salons, arousing great interest in himself. At the same time, at this time I received information available at the General Staff that a number of detours made by this monk around the prisoner-of-war camps were worrying, due to conversations that Mardarius had with them, in serving Mardarius in the interests of the enemy (in this case, was about Austria) a warring power with us. This information was reported to the academy by the chief prosecutor, reported by me and the chief prosecutor to Metropolitan Vladyka; they subsequently became known to Mardaria. Although the observation and verification of him did not confirm the correctness of the conclusion of the General Staff, I nevertheless informed A. A. Vyrubova, Voeikov and Rasputin about this, which gave Rasputin visible pleasure, since father Mardarii should travel to friends in Tsarskoye Selo was to stop. Then father Mardarius, when I left, according to Kon, who wanted to reconcile Rasputin with Mardarius, met with Kon several times and, despite all the efforts that Mardarius took to reconcile Rasputin with him, the latter not only did not meet this, but rudely (this was only once in my presence), not embarrassed by those sitting at the table, he cut off Mardaria’s father and then told me that if Kon didn’t stop inviting Mardaria, he would stop going to him. Then, when Mardarius graduated from the academy and, having no opportunity, in view of military operations, to leave for his homeland, not wanting to break off ties with Petrograd, he found himself teaching lessons in prof. Slavic gymnasium. Gribovsky, Rasputin insisted that Vladyka Pitirim appoint Mardaria to the Caucasus, despite all the requests of some ladies close to Rasputin, demanded Mardaria leave Petrograd and calm down when Mardarius left Petrograd, which, without indicating reasons, I advised him to do when he came to me for support from the Metropolitan to leave him in Petrograd ^[3] .

On August 17, 1916 he was appointed a teacher of homiletics and related subjects of the Alexander Ardon Theological Seminary . I didn’t want to go to seminary, as I entered the Petrograd University as a volunteer, and only arrived there on January 10, 1917.

July 3, 1917 the Holy Synod was appointed head of the Serbian mission in America, on the occasion of which he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite .

He was vice president and teacher of history of the Slavic states at the Russian People’s University in Chicago ^[4] .

On February 28, 1919, at the closing session of the Second All-American Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in Cleveland, Bishop Alexander (Nemolovsky) presented to the Council the candidacy of Archimandrite Mardarius (Uskokovic) for ordination as bishop for the care of Serbian parishes in North America and Archimandrite Theophanes (Noli) for the Albanian parish. The Council approved both candidates on condition that they be approved by both the Serbian and Albanian Churches, respectively ^[5] .

Since his consecration needed the permission of Patriarch Tikhon, and communication with him was difficult, Archimandrite Mardarius was sent to Belgrade. However, in Serbia he was appointed to another post - hegumen of the Rakovitsky monastery and the head of the monastic school located in it ^[6] .

December 5, 1925 was unanimously elected by the Bishops' Council of the SOC in Sremski Karlovtsy to the American pulpit ^[5] .

On April 25, 1926, in the Belgrade Cathedral Church, Serbian Patriarch Dimitri (Pavlovich) was ordained bishop of the United States and Canada, and on May 8, 1927 he arrived in the United States ^[5] .

On May 29-30, 1927, in Chicago, in the Monastery of Saint Sava, the 1st Great Serbian People’s Cathedral was held under the chairmanship of Bishop Mardarius, where it was decided to establish a temporary diocesan council of 23 members, convened by the bishop every 4 months, and to establish a diocesan fund to finance the bishop, council and Serbian schools.

On September 1, 1927, the First Church and People's Council was chaired by Bishop Mardarius, attended by 3 delegates from each parish, 5 delegates from the Srbobran-Slog, Sloboda and Srbadija unions, and one representative from each Serbian societies. The Council adopted the diocesan charter, formed the diocesan council ^[5] .

He died on December 12, 1935 in America. He was buried on December 18 at the Monastery of Saint Sava in Libertyville.

In October 2014, the book “The Lives of Bishop Mardarius of Libertyville and Archimandrite Sevastian Jackson ” was released. As explained on the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church, “the main motive for the publication of this hagiographic work was the desire to refresh the memory of these Christ-like people” ^[7]

The Bishops' Council of the Serbian Orthodox Church, held from May 14 to May 29, 2015, was canonized. The Day of Remembrance of St. Mardarius (Uskokovich) is determined to be celebrated on December 12 ^[1] .

On September 5, 2015, the Serbian patriarch Irenaeus, during his visit to the United States, made the official rite of glorification of St. Mardarius ^[8] . On May 5, 2017, his imperishable relics were acquired ^[9] .

On October 6, 2017, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, he was included in the months of the Russian Orthodox Church ^[10] .

• Bishop Mardarije (Uskokovic)