SERBIAN MONASTERIES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 191, 14 July 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

SERBIAN MONASTERIES.

Monastir derives its name from the vast number of monasteries which once existed in its neighbourhood, and of which a few have survived to this day. The whole of .Macedonia .and Serbia was once covered with monasteries, and many of them are famous throughout the Southern Slavonic world. The most celebrated of them is to be found, however, not at .Monastir, but further up north, not far from Mitrovitza, known as the Studenitza Monastery. It is the Mecca of the Serb race, having been established at the end of the twelfth century by Stephen Nemanja, the founder of the first Royal Serbian dynasty. After his death, which occurred at Mount Athos, he was canonised under the name of St. Simen, and his remains were brought back and buried at Studenitza, unc'.er a magnificent cenotaph, which probably represents the b t existing example of Serbo-Byz.antine art.