Beočin Monastery
First mentions and early history
There is no reliable information about the founder of the monastery. One of its first mentions can be found in Ottoman cadastral registries called defters from 1566-67 and 1578, though it is assumed that the monastery itself is older. Some of the first records about Beočin were also left by the monks who went from these parts to imperial Russia “to bestow by writing”, from which they mostly brought necessary material aid and liturgical books to their monastic families under the rule of a foreign faith. It was in Orthodox Moscow where hegumens Longin (1622) and Antonije (1629) collected alms in order to rebuild the destroyed monastery. It was these two ascetics who left information to future generations about the small, single-nave church which was later demolished, in order to build the present one. Built of stone, it was “reduced to an arch”, with a dome “constituted” above the choirs.
Afterwards, the veil of silence covered Beočin again, until the time of the Great Migration, when Patriarch Arsenije III (Čarnojević), in 1697, sent the monks from the Rača Monastery – the endowment of King Dragutin Nemanjić on the Drina river – who fled to the area of Buda and Szentendre. They settled in the monastery, most likely deserted during the Ottoman–Habsburg wars (1683–1699), built a new temple and brought valuable old manuscripts, as well as art objects, which formed the basis of the future treasury. Since their arrival, Beočin has continuously lived and actively participated in the religious and cultural endeavors of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci. Hence, as early as 1708, on St. John’s day, the first national-church assembly convened in the Krušedol Monastery for the purpose of electing the successor of Patriarch Arsenije III also mentions Hegumen Ruvim as the hegumen of the Beočin Monastery.
The Temple
Church of the Holy Ascension of the Christ was built between 1731 and 1740, and although it got its current appearance after a major renovation in 1893, the original foundation of the building is still preserved. The interior of the church was decorated before 1765, while the western wall, on the inside, and the marble altar was completed by 1788. Eleven years later, thanks to Obrad Radonić from Novi Sad and his contribution of 2,000 forints, the high bell tower was also built. Present day roof of the bell tower is much lower than the original, much more lavish, and probably dates from the era after the great renovation. The entrance to the temple, on the western side, with a “very decorative, sculpturally processed portal”, was created in 1787, under the foundation of Ilija Popović from Futog. The “Description of Fruška Gora Monasteries” by Dimitrije Ruvarac from 1753 states that the first ktetors of this holy place were neither church hierarchs, nor rulers and lords, but people from the middle class – postmen. Beočin is represented as a “beautiful edifice”, with a church that “was founded by the respectable lord Milivoj Milaković, resident of the town of Futog, him and his son Petar, the Postmaster of his Majesty k. u. k., maketh the whole church from its foundations, and commenced building it during the prosperous reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in 1732, under his excellence Arch. and Mitr. of Karlovci Vikentije Jovanović and hegumen and hieromonk Prohor, and with the help of the hard work of the brotherhood”. The Milaković family contributed 9,000 forints, which, together with the crucial financial support of the brotherhood and the faithful people, was the material basis on which this sacred building was built. Both ktetors from the Milaković family are buried in the middle of the temple, in a specially built tomb.
The iconostasis was painted by three artists, Teodor Dimitrijević Kračun, Janko Halkozović and Dimitrije Bačević, while the wood carving was carried out in 1765 by the Marković brothers (Arsenije and Aksentije) from Novi Sad. The iconostasis, made from 1756 to 1766, has a tall construction and, in addition to the usual lower zone, features a row of apostles with Christ, followed by a cycle of major church holidays and a representation of the Holy Trinity; above them, as a central icon, there is a series of prophets depicted together with the Mother of God and a large Crucifix at the top. Throne icons from 1756 and 1757, created by Halkozović, thanks to the contribution by Matija Petrović, “townsman of Novi Sad”, are considered to be the oldest. The others were created ten years later by Bačević and Kračun for Radonić, ktetor of the Beočin bell tower. Halkozović also vividly painted the composition “Ascension of Christ” on the western wall of the temple in 1777. What also makes the Church of the Ascension so special is its furniture, with thrones, shrines and choir stalls preserved to this day, which the “calm, sinful” and gifted painter Georgije decorated with valuable icons. His work was paid by Nedeljko Marković from Sremska Kamenica.
Chapel of St. George the Martyr
The old “chapel on the creek”, as it was called in a later description of the Beočin Monastery, was built at the same time as the temple, again thanks to the ktetor Milivoj Milaković. The iconostasis was painted before 1739, and it is known that the royal doors were executed by Dimitrije Janaći. Hegumen Dionisije (Čupić) was buried in the immediate vicinity of the old chapel of St. George the Martyr in 1846, which leads to the conclusion that a monastery cemetery could have been located around it. By the end of 1905, a new chapel was built on the opposite hill of the monastery garden, also dedicated to St. George, according to the designs of the architect Vladimir Nikolić. Today, this harmonious and appealing edifice, built with money from the foundation of Archimandrite Platon (Telečki) from Beočin, is located in a spacious park arranged in 1924 by gardeners from Paris, on the slope next to the dormitory. The simple altar partition, decorated with an elegant woodcarving and representations of six-winged seraphim, features icons based on iconostasis of the court chapel of St. Demetrius in Sremski Karlovci by Predić.
Treasury of the Monastery
The monastery possessed an invaluable treasury, known for numerous manuscripts, relics and religious objects, brought from “The Old Serbia” by monks from Rača. Lazar Mirković noted that all the antiques of Beočin were once stored in large glass cabinets in the Church of the Ascension. Among the most valuable objects of this treasury was a katapetasma (curtain for the imperial doors) made of red etles silk, embroidered with silk and gold and silver wires, with Greek inscriptions, which dates back to the end of the 14th or beginning of the 15th century, work by a nun named Ana, as signed at the bottom. Rača Monastery’s seals, silver and gilded reliquaries, chalices, discus and stars, thrones and handheld crucifixes were kept here as well. Exiled, the monks from Rača took the famous “Rača Remembrance Book” with them, which was kept in the Patriarchal Library of Sremski Karlovci. It contains the names and some information about the different contributors to the monastery, rulers, archbishops, monks, nuns and laymen that were mentioned during the cervices on certain days. Nowadays, the largest part of the once famous treasury of Beočin is stored in the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade.
Suffering and renewal
Fortunately, Beočin is among the few monasteries of Fruška gora that were not destroyed during the Second World War. Nevertheless, it was completely robbed and its monks were banished. Its hegumen, Archimandrite Dositej (Đorić), as well the professor of the Faculty of Theology Filaret (Granić) PhD, left it only when they realized that their lives were in danger, on June 21, 1941. After that, the dormitories were literally emptied, expensive furniture was stolen and a valuable library of about 4,000 books was taken to Zagreb. After the war, the monastery was turned into a hospital for pulmonary diseases, which was located in this place until 1968, after which western parts of the dormitory were used by the Archives of Vojvodina until 1992. From 1966 to 1993, the monastery was a home to the theologian Dušan Dožić (1903–1994), nephew and chief of staff of the Serbian patriarch Gavrilo (Dožić) (1881–1950), both of whom shared the same sufferings in Nazi captivity and Dachau concentration camp. Besides the first ktetors of the monastery, the Milaković family, Varnava, the Holy Bishop of Hvosno, is also buried in the Temple of the Holy Ascension.