„Diary of a Decani monk 1903-1906“ published – original records and documents from the monastery archives

The book „Diary of a Decani monk 1903-1906“ is now available for purchase in the online store of the Visoki Decani Monastery and the bookstores of the Faculty of Theology in Belgrade. The book is available in two languages – Serbian and English, the Visoki Decani monastery announced.

In the meantime, the Abbot of the Visoki Decani monastery, Sava Janjic published the Serbian version of the book „Diary of a Decani monk 1903-1906“ in PDF format, announcing that the English edition would be published soon.

According to the monastery’s Facebook post, the diary is a testimony of the life and difficult position of the clergy of the monastery, as well as the Serb people in Metohija.

„Simple and short, dated records of the. priestmonk Dionysius shows the attitude of the Muslim Albanian population and the Ottoman authorities toward Decani at a time when the monastery was also under armed guard,“ the monastery said in a statement, adding that both Serbs and Albanians visited the monastery at the time, especially during the monastery’s religious celebrations.

At the beginning of the 20th century – as is the case today – foreign diplomats expressed great interest in this medieval monastery, which was frequently visited by Russian, English, Italian and French consuls even at the time.

The book, along with Dionysius’ writings, also contains the travelogue of an Englishwoman Mary Edith Durham from 1904, as well as the photographs shot by Durham and the priestmonk Arsenije.

The KoSSev portal previously published parts of the famous travelogue of Mary Edith Durham earlier within the series „Stories from the Decani Treasury“. The book „Through the Lands of the Serb“ was a travelogue written during her first three visits to Montenegro, Serbia, northern Albania, and Old Serbia from 1900 to 1903. During her visit, Edith Durham also stayed at the Visoki Decani Monastery, which she described on page 309 of the book. Full versions (in English and Serbian) are available online.

This book is the third book containing historical records and documents prepared by the monastery. The Visoki Decani monastery stressed that „attempts to falsify the history of Visoki Decani and other monasteries in Kosovo“ served as a motive to publish as many original documents from the monastery archives as possible.

Previously, the books „The Suffering of Old Serbia and Macedonia in the 19th Century“ and „Decani Fermans“ were published.

Visoki Decani has been under UNESCO protection since 2005 and under KFOR protection since ’99. The monastery was the target of four armed attacks – two mortar attacks in 2000 and 2004, a hand grenade rocket attack in 2007, as well as several terrorist attack attempts.