The Čajniče Monastery with its Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother of God () is a
Serbian Orthodox
The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.
The majority of the populat ...
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...
located in
Čajniče
Čajniče ( sr-cyr, Чајниче, ) is a town and a municipality in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, the town has a population of 2,401 inhabitants, while the municipality has 4,895 inhabitants.
History
When the German and ...
,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...
,
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, ; also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or Serb Republic) is one of the two Political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, entities within Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other bein ...
.
There are, actually, two churches side by side, the new and the old one. The old church dates from 15th century, and the new one was built in 1857. The church is known for the miraculous icon of the Holy Virgin. This is the only extant example of icon painting in Bosnia dating from pre-Ottoman times. It is the processional icon of the Virgin and Child painted on one side, and of St. John the Baptist on the other. Popularly known as the ''Čajniče Beauty'' and deemed miraculous, the icon comes from the Church of the Assumption, a traditional place of pilgrimage. It is the work of a Byzantine artist painted in the first half of the fourteenth century, or as historians estimate, around 1329–1330.
Čajniče Gospel
The museum of the ''Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother of God'' keeps the ''
Čajniče Gospel
Čajniče Gospel ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Čajničko jevanđelje, Чајничко јеванђеље) is the oldest gospel written in medieval Bosnia, which probably belonged to the Bosnian noble family, the Pavlovićs, and is the only medieval Bosnian go ...
'', the oldest gospel written in Bosnia, which probably belonged to the Bosnian noble family
Radinović-Pavlović, and is the only medieval Bosnian gospel that has been preserved in country to this day. It probably originate at the beginning of the 15th century, and by evaluating the language characteristics and its
Ijekavian
Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige supradialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin stand ...
dialect, it is certain that it originate from ijekavijan eastern Bosnia. The codex was written in shorthand, with a semi-constitution of the Bosnian type, also known as
Bosnian Cyrillic
Bosnian Cyrillic, widely known as Bosančica, is a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet that originated in medieval Bosnia. The term was coined at the end of the 19th century by Ćiro Truhelka. It was widely used in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovin ...
. It is estimated that five main scribes took turns, continuously writing the text. The Čajniče Gospel is a four-gospel, and only parts of the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and most of the Gospel of Luke have been preserved, while the Gospel of John, the beginning and end of the manuscript, and a certain number of pages in the middle are lost, so that in present condition the manuscript has 167 pages. The codex is declared a
National monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
See also
*
Zavala Monastery
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Monastery of the Dormition, Cajnice
Čajniče
Serbian Orthodox monasteries in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Buildings and structures in Republika Srpska