Martyrs receive peace from God, suffering for Christ becomes a joy for them
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| Arcimandrite Luka (Anich) of blessed memory +2013 |
Fr. Luke: We all knew Fr. Chariton, as well as many other monks from the Raška and Prizren diocese. Recently, a book about him was published. The only thing I can tell about Fr. Chariton — it's about his martyrdom and how I got to know him. During the war in Kosovo, Fr. Chariton was a monk in Prizren, Kosovo. He tried to protect people from the Albanians cruelty, to hide and save them from death. The Albanians found out, they caught him, and for the next 7-8 years, we did know nothing what have happened to him. International Special forces have found his body, and we reverently buried Fr. Chariton in the Crna Reka monastery.
Fr. Chariton was a monk for only a year, he received monastic tonsure only a year before his martyrdom. But I experienced something with him I would like to tell you about.
Something happened to me, I didn't understand it back then, and I wasn't ready for it. That happened in 1999 at the ordination of Bishop Grigory of Zahum and Herzegovina in Trebinje. After the ordination there was a festal lunch. The table places prepared for the abbots of the large monasteries were at the top of the table. But one of the abbots didn't come for some reason, and on his place they set to sit Fr. Chariton, for whom no other place was found. They placed him among the abbots, and yet he was a simple monk, tonsured only a year ago.
But as soon as he sat next to me, such a feeling of peace have spread from him that I was amazed. "How is it possible," I thought, "that in just one year of monastic life a man can acquire such peace." It was a complete peace that spreads to others and inspires. I remember, his hands were covered with some small scratches. He looked like he had been a monk for 30-40 years. Sitting next to him I felt like a little child, like next to an elderly brother, who has decades of monastic life behind him, who has gone through all the problems and trials and who has earned that peace. I already felt such peace around some people, great ascetics, and that very peace have spread from Fr. Chariton. I was shaken. We didn't even talk about anything in particular during the lunch, he just shone with such peace. After a few days he was martyred.
When will Father Chariton be canonized?
And when my soul sinks into the depths,
help me, oh help me, o Holy Chariton"..
I talked to some bishops about it. "You can pray to him like a saint. He is holy because he received a martyr's death because he wanted to protect others," they told me.
The complete and all-encompassing peace that came from him was so obvious: he had reached the pinnacle of spiritual life and was ready to end his earthly journey.