Mardarije Uskokovich

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Mardarije Uskoković (secular name Ivan Uskoković, Иван Ускоковић; 22 December 1889 – 12 December 1935) was the First Serbian Bishop of America and Canada He was glorified as a saint on 29 May 2015, and his feast day is celebrated on 12 December.

Biography

Bishop Mardarije was born in Podgorica in Montenegroon 22 December 1889, to father, Petar (a tribal captain), and mother, Jela, née Božović.He finished elementary school in Cetinje where he started high school, continuing in Belgrade. Leaving high school, he went to Studenica Monastery. In 1906, with the blessing of Bishop Sava (Barać) of Žiča, he took monastic vows and was ordained a deacon.

Uskoković graduated from the seminary in Kishinev where a collection of his sermons was published. From there he went to St. Petersburg, graduating from the Theological Academy in 1916.

As a theological student Hieromonk Mardarije, at the behest of the holy prisoners' camps in Siberia, Turkestan, and Bukhara, journeyed to deliver lectures and talked to prisoners of Slav extraction from Austro-Hungary who eventually joined the forces of Imperial Russia against the Bolsheviks.

In 1917 the Russian Orthodox Church Mardarije to North America to organize the Serbian Orthodox Church there. Here he served as head of the Serbian Mission, and at the Cleveland Conference of the Russian Metropolitanate, he was elected the Serbian Bishop. But Archimandrite Mardarije did not wish to accept episcopal consecration without the knowledge and approval of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the homeland. Instead, he returned to his ancestral country of origin and became head of Rakovica Monastery and rector of its monastic school.

There he remained until early 1923 when he returned to America as Administrator of the newly-created American-Canadian Diocese, holding this office until elected the first Serbian bishop of America and Canada. The nomination and election of Archimandrite Mardarije as Bishop of America and Canada occurred in 1923 when he was in poor health and was forbidden to travel to Belgrade for a while until he was healthy enough.

Archimandrite Mardarije was consecrated Bishop in the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Belgrade on 25 April 1926, by Patriarch Dimitrije of Serbia and the Bishop Danilo of Dalmatia and Istria and Bishop Serafim of Zletovo and Strumica. Also present at the consecration and Liturgy was Gordon Paddock, Chargé d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade.

Bishop Mardarije arrived in his Diocese in New York on 1 July notifying Patriarch Dimitrije of this by telegram and sending his first Report to the patriarch in early September 1926.

In his first hierarchic message to the clergy and people, Bishop Mardarije acknowledged all, including the deceased, "who had worked for the welfare of the Serbian Church in America."

A wide range of activities awaited the first Serbian bishop in America and Canada. Bishop Mardarije did not spare himself nor did he fear work, though he knew he was gravely ill. Bishop Mardarije convened the first National Church Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox American-Canadian Diocese with his Fourth Archpastoral Message for 1 September 1927,at Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Monastery and Seminary in Libertyville, Illinois, based on the Resolution adopted at the National Assembly in Chicago on 29 May 1927. Bishop Mardarije died at the monastery on 12 December 1935 and was buried there on 18 December 1935.

Legacy

He initiated and inspired Serbian faith-based parishes across North America.

Literature

• Bishop Sava (Vuković) of Šumadija, History of the Serbian Orthodox Church in America and Canada: 1891-1941, Kragujevac, 1998.

See also

• Sebastian Dabovich
• John Maximovich
• Nikolaj Velimirović
• Varnava Nastić
• Alexander Hotovitzky
• Alexis Toth
• Vasily Martysz
• Anatole Kamensky
• Seraphim of Uglich
• Bogoljub Gakovich
• Teofan Beatović
• Matej Stijačić
• Peter the Aleut
• Jacob Netsvetov
• Innocent of Alaska
• Tikhon Belavin
• Herman of Alaska

References

• From Orthowiki: https://orthodoxwiki.org/Mardarije_%28Uskokovi%C4%87%29_of_America
•  This article incorporates text by Orthodox Wiki available under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

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