10.02.22.

Home for refugee children in Mataruška Banja and Studenica Monastery

During the Second World War, a number of children from Kozara and from the areas that belonged to the NDH, as well as from some other regions, found salvation in the home for refugee children in spa resort Mataruška Banja near Kraljevo and at the Studenica Monastery. Many orphaned children survived, but some did not. Children who died of illness and malnutrition were buried in the village of Konarevo on the outskirts of Kraljevo. Today, very little is known about the difficult fate of these children.

„А кад гледаше подизање храма Пресвете [Богородице у Студеници], овај мој господин свети, верујте ми, о господо и браћо, да сам видео како се његов ум диже у висину као неки небопарни орао, који је држан на земљи везан узама железним, па се истргао и у висину узлетео да дође до онога бесмртнога и светога источника и да види хлад божанственога града Вишњег Јерусалима, чији, уистину, постаде грађанин“

„Студеница је грађена да спаја небо и земљу, да буде лествица која узводи људе са земље ка небу, да слави Тросунчаног Бога у лепоти вишњега Јерусалима, у Царству небеском“.

„Наш свети манастир овај, као што знате, као пусто место беше, ловишта зверова беху. Дошавши, пак, у лов, господину нашем и самодршцу, царствујућем све Српске земље, Стефану Немањи, ловећи овде, изволи се њему у пустом овом месту да сагради манастир овај, на покој и на умножење монашког чина“.

"And when he saw the building of the temple of the Most Holy [Mother of God in Studenica], this holy lord of mine, believe me, O gentlemen and brothers, that I saw his mind rise in height like a eagle flying to the sky, held on the ground tied with iron ropes, so he tore himself and ascended to the heights to reach that immortal and holy wellspring and to see the shade of the divine city of the Most High Jerusalem, of which, indeed, he became a citizen."

"Studenica was built to connect Heaven and Earth, to be a Ladder that raises people from Earth to Heaven, to glorify the Triune God in the beauty of the Most High Jerusalem, in the Kingdom of Heaven".

"This, our holy monastery, as is known, was a wasteland, a wild hunting ground. Yet, upon arriving to hunt, our master and consolidator, Stefan Nemanja, who ruled the entire Serbian lands, whilst hunting here, decided to build, on this wasteland, this monastery, for peace and for the multiplication of the monastic order."