Denial and Repression of Anti-Semitism: Post-Communist Rehabilitation of the Serbian Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic

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This book examines the rehabilitation over the past two decades of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic (1881-1956), the controversial Serbian Orthodox Christian philosopher, written fifty years after his death. Having been vilified by the former Yugoslav Communist authorities as a traitor, antisemite and a fascist, Velimirovic has come to be regarded in Serbian society as a saintly figure and the most important religious person since medieval times. This book charts the posthumous passage of Velimirovic from ‘traitor’ to ‘saint’ and examines the complementary dynamics of repression and denial that were used to divert public attention from the controversies surrounding his life. This book presents the first detailed examination of the way in which an Eastern Orthodox Church manages controversy surrounding the presence of anti-Semitism within its ranks and considers the implications of the continuing reverence of Nikolaj Velimirovic for the persistence of antisemitism in Serbian Orthodox culture and Serbian society as a whole. This study is based on a detailed examination of the changing representations of Velimirovic in the Serbian media and in commemorative discourse, as well as interviews with a number of prominent public figures who have been actively involved in the bishop’s rehabilitation over the past two decades.