Monks and clergy of the Rmanj Monastery who suffered for the faith through the monastery's long history; their relics were uncovered in 2022 and they were numbered among the saints by the Serbian Church
The Holy New Martyrs of Rmanj
The New Martyrs of Rmanj are the monks, clergy, and laborers of the Rmanj Monastery in Bosnia who suffered and died in connection with the monastery's long and troubled history, and who were numbered among the saints by the Serbian Orthodox Church after their relics were uncovered. They are commemorated on September 10.
Rmanj Monastery, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, stands at Martin Brod in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the left bank of the Unac River near its confluence with the Una. The earliest written reference to it dates to 1498, the original structure most likely belonging to the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. Through the centuries the monastery was repeatedly devastated and rebuilt: it was temporarily abandoned under Ottoman rule in 1578, burned by the Ottomans in 1663, damaged during the anti-Ottoman uprising of 1875-1876 and repaired in 1883, destroyed by aerial bombing in 1944, and shelled again in the conflict of 1995. This repeated suffering forms the background to the martyrs commemorated here.
In 2022, during renovation work around the monastery church, human remains were discovered buried near the church foundations and entrance. By the account of the Serbian Church, these were the relics of ten monks, priests, and laborers connected with the monastery, and they were placed in a reliquary within it.
Among the remains uncovered in 2022 were those of the nineteenth-century hieromartyr Cvijo Zoric, a widowed priest whom the local people regarded as an honorary monk on account of his virtuous life. According to the account, he was worked to death by the local ruler, whose cruelty toward the Orthodox is recorded in the memoirs of the English archaeologist Arthur Evans, who traveled in the region.
The Holy Martyrs of Rmanj were canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church at a session of its Holy Assembly of Bishops, held in Belgrade in the crypt of the Cathedral of Saint Sava. The more specific account dates this canonization to May 2025; the martyrs were glorified together with other groups of Serbian martyrs of the same region who perished in the persecutions and pogroms against the Serbs of Bosnia.