Bequest to the Monastery of Saint Parascève (Izvor)
At the exit of the Čestobrodica river gorge, at the foot of the Kučaj Mountains, built on a rock on the right bank of the Grza River, stands the monastery of St. Parascève. The monastery is a Home for children and women with mental and physical disabilities. In this oasis of the infirm built by the hard-working sisterhood, the light, joy and love illuminate those in need, and this house of benevolence Established by God and the beloved Serbian Saint bears yet another name: The Home of the Pure Heart..
When, after the war caused refugee exile, Abbess Jefimija Mićić and her sisterhood reunited at the monastery of Saint Parascève in 1942, the Commissariat for Refugees entrusted the monastery with the care of hundreds of refugee children and war orphans who stayed in the monastery until the WW II liberation in 1945. The nuns, themselves in great scarcity of those war years, invested patience, sympathy and great effort to reduce the trauma in the life tragedy of those children as well as to create better living conditions. After the war, when the founding of the Home for Female Children was initiated, Abbess Jefimija, known for her strong faith and good organizational skills, feeling responsible before God and her nation, decided to give her motherly protection to children with disabilities.
As in all previous times and today in the monastery, caring for children is a special and exceptional monastic obedience for nuns that gives the monastery of Saint Parascève an important status and special reputation, not only in the Serbian Orthodox Church and among such Homes in Serbia but in the country in general.
With gratitude to the sisterhood for their care, love and tenderness shown to the wards, many parents admitted that they wouldn’t or couldn’t entrust their children to anyone except these nuns. Since 2005, the Home has been under the administration of Abbess Marija and the deputy abbess mother Glikerija, who continued the spiritual guidance of the sisterhood and the management of both monasteries (Ravanica and Saint Parascève), in whom both nuns and protégés have great support. Both prioresses as monastic elders and persons responsible for the life of children in the Home, as well as all nuns, perform their tasks and obedience not as employees but as members of a large family in harmony, with a high level of responsibility and dedication, and thus made the Home a sort of training ground for the development of the emotional relationship of trust and love, with special respect and gratitude for every hard-working moment of parental care over the infirm.
For many years of dedicated work and effort, the Karić Brothers Foundation decided to support the sisterhood of the monastery of Saint Parascève at Izvor with the significant financial donation for their mercy and compassionate care for people with mental disorders, for their unconditional love, peace and spiritual consolation to all wards.
