Manasija Monastery: A History

The time of abbot Pavle's brief postwar administration was a time that soon brought considerable changes for the Resava monastery. On the one hand, in 1948 Manasija Monastery was placed under state protection; the first archaeological and architectural field investigations of the Resava fortress and the Church of the Holy Trinity soon followed, and restoration work was also begun. On the other hand, by the decision of Bishop Hrizostom Vojinović of Braničevo (1911–1989), of blessed memory, Manasija Monastery was soon afterwards turned into a women's monastery: at the end of 1953 a sisterhood moved into it, led by Mother Paraskeva Jovanović (1912–1999) - a renowned nun, remembered as Mother - Amma. In 1955 abbot Pavle Panić, as an archimandrite, was transferred to the parish in the village of Vlaški Do,²⁰⁴ and continued his ministry - now as a parish priest.²⁰⁵ The administration of Manasija Monastery was taken over by Mother Paraskeva, who became abbess of the women's monastery of Manasija at the beginning of 1956: in that year there were about twenty nuns in the Manasija monastic community.²⁰⁶ After Archimandrite Pavle's departure, one priest remained in the monastery - the old hieromonk Joanikije Ivanov, who fell asleep in the Lord in 1957 or 1958.²⁰⁷ After his repose, the divine services in Manasija Monastery were celebrated in the following decades by numerous priest-monks and clergy, mostly from the surrounding monasteries but also from the surrounding parishes of the Eparchy of Braničevo. The Manasija sisterhood grew, passing through various periods and various trials. Monastic life in Manasija Monastery continued without interruption, and the sisterhood strove to secure all the conditions necessary for monastic life and also to restore the Despot's endowment. One of the priority tasks the sisterhood set itself was to improve the living conditions: first of all, the sisters of Manasija undertook the restoration of the old monastic lodging, which they successfully completed, thereby securing more favorable conditions and more suitable living quarters before the end of 1960.

The engagement of state institutions made possible the beginning of a more complete restoration of the Manasija monastery complex at a time when the social position of the Church was unenviable. By divine providence, a time of gradual restoration came for the endowment of the Holy Despot in the postwar Yugoslav state. The Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments delegated experts who in the postwar years studied the Resava fortress and the Manasija church, putting forward preliminary proposals regarding the planned restoration and protection. At the end of 1956, work on the conservation and restoration of Manasija began. On the basis of the data then available a technical study was drawn up, and university professors, the architects Đorđe Bošković (1904– 1990) and Aleksandar Deroko (1894–1988), were consulted for their opinions on the conservation problems and the necessary measures. In the decades that followed, gradual restoration ensued,²⁰⁸ which has so far yielded considerable results.²⁰⁹ The Manasija ramparts and moats were investigated and to a certain extent restored.²¹⁰ The wall paintings were conserved.²¹¹ Extensive work was carried out on the Despot's Tower.²¹²