The Holy Confessor Varnava, Bishop of Hvosno

Author: Savo B. Jovic

The Holy Confessor Varnava, Bishop of Hvosno, Belgrade 2006, pp. 315 With this work, the author sheds light on the life path of the Holy Confessor Varnava, Bishop of Hvosno (Serbia), from his birth on January 31, 1914, in Garry, Indiana, USA, to his martyr's death in 1964, in the Monastery Beočin.
Varnava was one of the numerous victims of the Communist regime of the former Yugoslavia. Graduated from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade in 1937, he was elected and ordained a bishop in 1947, when he was also arrested, and then sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment. He served his sentence in Sarajevo, Stolac, Zenica, and Sremska Mitrovica, followed by house arrest in the monasteries Vavedenje, Krušedol, Gomionica, and Beočin, where he died under very suspicious circumstances and was buried. In addition to scantily known facts, from the relatively poor and sparse archive materials, the author reveals in the light of day, Varnava’s previously unknown homilies and letters, as well as testimonials of his acquaintances and co-sufferers. Thus for the first time, we now have a monograph about this Saint Varnava, which illuminates his image as a confessor. His name has been added to the Diptychs of Saints of the Church on May 15, 2005.