Early Life and Education
Vojislav Nastić was born on January 31, 1914, in Gary, Indiana, to Serbian immigrant parents Atanasije and Zorka (née Laković) Nastić. The family attended St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Gary, where the young Vojislav was baptized and served as an altar boy. He became known as a prodigy in reciting Serbian traditional epic poetry.
In 1923, when he was nine years old, the family returned to Yugoslavia. Nastić completed high school in Sarajevo in 1933 and went on to study at the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Orthodox Theology, graduating in 1937. After his studies he worked as a catechist in two Sarajevo high schools.
Monastic Life and Episcopal Consecration
In 1940, Nastić took monastic vows at Mileševa Monastery, adopting the religious name Varnava (Barnabas) in honor of the Apostle Barnabas and the Serbian Patriarch Varnava (Rosić). He was ordained a hierodeacon by Metropolitan Petar of Dabar-Bosna and remained in Sarajevo throughout the Second World War.
In 1947 he advanced to the rank of hieromonk and protosyncellus under Bishop Nektarije of Zvornik and Tuzla. That same year the Holy Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church elected him auxiliary bishop to the Serbian Patriarch with the title Bishop of Hvosno, charging him with the administration of the Diocese of Dabar-Bosnia. He received episcopal consecration on August 28, 1947, by Patriarch Gavrilo, together with Bishops Nektarije and Vikentije of Zletovo and Strumica.
Confession and Imprisonment
Bishop Varnava's many sermons denouncing communism alarmed the Yugoslav authorities. He was arrested on December 25, 1947, only four months after his consecration, and in 1948 was sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment.
Initially held at Zenica, he was transferred to Sremska Mitrovica in 1950 owing to his popularity among the inmates. During the transfer a freight train struck his passenger train, severely injuring him and requiring several months of hospitalization. Intervention by the Holy Synod of Bishops and the U.S. Embassy secured his early release in 1951, on condition that he retire from the clergy. He thereafter remained under house arrest and continuous government surveillance.
Death and Canonization
Bishop Varnava died unexpectedly on November 12, 1964, and was buried at Beočin Monastery. Relatives and clergy suspected that the communist regime had poisoned him, though no autopsy could be conducted and the circumstances remained unresolved.
He was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church on May 15, 2005. His feast is kept on November 12 (October 30 on the Julian calendar). Because of his birth in Gary, Indiana, he is counted among the American saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church, alongside such figures as Alexis Toth, Alexander Hotovitzky, Herman of Alaska, and Peter the Aleut.
