Office for Kosovo and Metohija
Government of the Republic of Serbia

Đurić: What faithless have lost, only fateful can recover

On the occasion of consecrating the restored building of the Seminary of the Saints Cyril and Methodius in Prizren, the Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Marko Đurić said that on this day the message from this city is signaled to every Serbian home that what the faithless have lost, only the faithful can recover.

"It is therefore that we are here today with the Diocese of Raška and Prizren to restore the Seminary at the very place where King Petar was forced to bury the Serbian crown a century ago, because we believe that this is also an act of renewing Kosovo and Metohija, Serbia and the entire Serbian people," Đurić said.

Justice Minister Nikola Selaković also attended, stating that all those who say that Serbia is losing its ground in Kosovo and Metohija can now be reassured of the complete opposite.

Minister Selaković said that some 80 people live and study at the Prizren Seminary today, over 50 future theologians and 30-odd people who work together with them, teaching them and creating a normal atmosphere for learning.

Selaković recalled that the Prizren born Sima Andrejević Igumanov bequeathed his family home for the Serbs, formerly living "in the chains of slavery" in the Ottoman Empire, to be enlightened and be allowed to drink at the fountain of knowledge.

"Today, 140 years after this magnificent act, seeing the new-old seminary shine in new splendor makes us rejoice to be here today, but I am sure also those citizens of Prizren who were forced to leave this town by the dire circumstances and cruel fate," Selaković said.

Minister Selaković added there were more banished Serbs that ever present on this day in Prizren, in order to celebrate with singing and dancing and prayer the day when the seminary produced its first generation of young theologians after 1999.

"This is the way we show to all those who say that loud and strong words should be used to defend the Serbian cause, that, in the words of H.H. Patriarch Pavle, our words are quiet but our arguments are strong. And if there is a place to witness this today, it is here, in the Prizren Seminary," Selaković stated.