Visit to the Monastery Ravanica

On Saturday, April 17, 2010, the activists of the Humanitarian Organization „Nezaboravak“ from Belgrade, Ćuprija, Niš, Zrenjanin and Jagodina visited the Monastery Ravanica and, on the occasion, donated a large quantity of clothing, footwear and hygiene products for the residents at the House of Saint Petka Monastery, which is a part of the sisterhood of the Monastery Ravanica.

In an interview with Mother Marija, Abbess of the Monastery Ravanica, the activists of the Humanitarian Organization „Nezaboravak“ were closer introduced to the history and the current state in the House of the Monastery of Saint Petka.

The Home was founded in 1942, long time ago, when it received refugee children. After the World War II, the Ministry of Social Affairs established the Home for the Defective Children in the Monastery, which could accommodate thirty children, the very worst cases of mental, psychological and physical deficiency. Initially, the residents were accommodated in the guest house of the Monastery, and in 1966 the Home was built on the monastery estate.

Today, at the foot of the monastery of Saint Petka, just across the spring of healing water, which is said to help many and which the place was named by is located a modern building - a haven for females affected by different diseases and degenerative processes that led to severe mental and physical conditions.

The nuns of the Monastery St. Petka are in charge and take care about this Home. The nuns take care of 92 residents, prepare the food for them, bestow them with a prayer or a nice word, upkeep the building… A half of the residents are completely immobile, and all the patients in the Home have a lifetime accommodation. Although the nuns call them children (they come there like children and then spend the rest of their lives there), the residents are of different ages, from juveniles to women in the older ages…

Conscientious, loyal and motivated by Christ's love, the nuns of the Monastery St. Petka who belong to the sisterhood of the Monastery Ravanica are the real strength of this Home. They found a new meaning to their monastic feats in their new calling.

In an interview with the members of our Society, Mother Marija, the Abbess of the Monastery Ravanica said: „We must have great faith, patience and love to be able to take care of the people who are disabled. They all like you to approach to them, to caress their hand and that matters the most to them. They do not care for other very important things from the everyday life, but they are craving for love and attention. We calm them down by telling them a nice word and we live with them as a family. Then they come alive, they get into the mood, they laugh and it keeps them going and gives them hope in life“.

Taking care about the patients in the Home includes many tasks for the sisterhood of the monastery. They have to work in the laundry, in the office where a nun takes care about the Home administration. There is a nun who supplies the Home with groceries, medicine and clothing for the residents; the Home kitchen is different from the Monastery in which the nuns prepare food for the residents; and, finally, there are nuns who daily nurture the residents of the Home. The nurture includes feeding, dressing and hygiene care and the care of their social life. Extraordinary tidy rooms, pleasant smell, clean and fully clothed patients who are dressed at least four times a day and bathed at least once a day – this is a working day of each sister.