The Monastery of St. John Vladimir in Elbasan, Albania, festively celebrated its patronal feast day on June 3 and 4. St. John Vladimir was a 10th-century Serbian prince and is known as a beacon of Orthodoxy in Albania and throughout the Balkans. His relics were located in the monastery from 1381 to 1995, and are now kept in the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Tirana, from where they are brought to the monastery every year for the feast. Since 2021, the monastery has been home to a small portion of his relics, which were returned to the Albanian Church from the National History Museum in Tirana.

The celebration gathered clergy and faithful from various Local Churches and countries. The Divine Liturgy was led by the Albanian primate His Eminence Archbishop John of Tirana, with Metropolitan Anthony of Elbasan, Bishop Anastasios of Kruja, and clergy from Albania, Bigorsky Monastery of the Macedonian Orthodox Church-Ohrid Archbishopric, and Constantinople clergy from Italy, the Albanian Church reports. There was also a delegation of Serbian Orthodox clergy and laity from the Montenegrin city of Bar, where St. John Vladimir is venerated as patron saint. After the Liturgy, a procession with St. John Vladimir’s relics was held around the church.

The holy Martyr John Vladimir, a Serbian prince, was born in the 10th century. From his childhood he was raised in piety, and at maturity he wisely governed his holdings of Illyria and Dalmatia, preserving the holy faith in purity. The noble prince was married to Kosara, a daughter of the Bulgarian Tsar Samuel. Summoned for talks with the Bulgarian Tsar John-Vladislav, he was treacherously murdered by the Tsar on May 22, 1015, at the entrance to a church. Kosara, the pious spouse of the holy prince, entered a women’s monastery that she built, and where also she died, not leaving the church until the very end of her life. (Quelle: www.orthochristian.com, 5. Juni 2025)