SVETI MARKO MONASTERY

Legend of the miraculous spring

As a place of pilgrimage, the secluded field spring in the atar of Novi Karlovci most likely became famous in the first decades of the 19th century. Tradition says that there, on the day of Saint Mark the Apostle, the boy of the same name from Krčedin, who had been blind since birth, „saw again”. Lost on the open sea of ​​the Srem plain and exhausted from the endless walk, he sought deliverance in fervent prayer, until the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Mark appeared to him Similar to the cult spring in Berkasovo, a touching legend says that fresh, healing water broke through the dry earth, over which an ecstatic vision took place. As a sign of gratitude for God’s mercy, he placed an icon with the image of the Evangelist over the miraculous spring, to whose intercession he attributed his unexpected recovery. It is certain that since 1835, this place was respected by pious inhabitants of the surrounding villages.

Chapel on the water

The smaller chapel, near the „water”, dedicated to the Holy Evangelist and Apostle Mark, was built by parish priest Aleksandar Jovanović in 1883, „to the glory of God”, „for the eternal memory of himself and his wife, Jelisaveta Persida, who died on March 18, 1880”, as written on the wall plaque. It was built on 196a of land, which was donated to the Novi Karlovci church municipality by the Lukač family. The single-nave temple, with a lower bell tower and a semicircular apse, was consecrated by the Serbian patriarch German (Anđelić) on Markovdan, in April 1884. From then until the beginning of the Second World War, the Holy Liturgy was served here twice a year, on the vow days of the neighboring village, dedicated to the Holy Apostles Mark and Bartholomew. In front of the altar, there used to be a simple wooden partition, on which printed icons of less material value were hung.

Proclamation of a monastery and restoration of the sanctuary

Over time, this place of worship on a field was literally overgrown with weeds and undergrowth. The long process of its revitalization began in August 2006, when the spouses Đoko and Persida Obradov moved here. It was entrusted to the care of the Serbian Orthodox Church Municipality in Inđija on December 7, 2007, since when the guardianship of the temple of the Holy Apostle Mark was entrusted to Archpriest Radislav Trajković. On January 3, 2011, His Grace the Holy Bishop of Srem, Mr. Vasilije, turned the old water” into a women’s monastery.

Thanks to the effort and love of the Obradov couple, the plaster was removed from the dilapidated building, both inside and outside, and electricity was soon introduced into it. In addition, the old roof structure was changed and a „cerclage” was made around the church. The road to the monastery is paved and a well is drilled in the gate. Until now, the temple has been completely renovated, a lodge and a corresponding fountain have been built above Mark’s spring, which are surrounded by a solid builded fence, at the southern end of the sacred complex.

This monastery does not have holy relics, nor artistic antiquities. There are no burials in the temple or the gate. To the south of the chapel, a bust of the Serbian Patriarch Pavle (Stojčević) was placed, while the icon of the „A life-giving spring” (srp. Živonosni Istočnik), with a representation of the boy from Krčedin and his heavenly protector, was made by the academic painter Tanja Janošević in the Virgin’s throne. The iconostasis, which was carved by Rajko Kušlaković, was painted by Archimandrite Timotej (Kosanović).