The Crna Reka Monastery () is a monastic hermitage located in the mountains of southern Central Serbia, in Ribariće, situated in the gorge of the Crna Reka (Black River). The monastery is located in the village of Ribariće and belongs to the Eparchy of Raška and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church. As a whole, it represents an immovable cultural property as a Monument of Culture of Great Importance. Despite its exceptional beauty and significance, the Crna Reka Monastery was long almost unknown outside its immediate surroundings. Only recently, with the construction of a bridge on Gazivoda Lake near Ribariće and the repair of the approach road, the Crna Reka Monastery, as a rare jewel of Serbian medieval culture, is emerging from the relative anonymity in which it has existed for a full 700 years. The monastery is active, male, and cared for by monks.
In the monastery are the relics of Saint Peter of Koriša, one of the well-known Serbian ascetics from the 13th century. There is a cave in the monastery where the church is situated; in that cave, there is a stone depression where water collects drop by drop. The water is, as believers say, healing, and especially helps with eye diseases, which is why the people call it the "water of the Holy Archangel Michael".
There is another holy relic in the monastery that attracts great attention from believers, and that is the grave of the venerable martyr Hariton Lukić, a former brother of Crna Reka. The venerable martyr Hariton Lukić, a brother of the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren, was martyred by Kosovo Liberation Army terrorists in the vicinity of Prizren on June 15, 1999.
Location The Crna Reka Monastery is located near the village of Ribariće, between Novi Pazar and Tutin. The M-22 main road (Ibar Highway) leads to Ribariće, and buses from larger cities in Serbia also pass through the village. The monastery is situated in Ibar Kolašin, in the gorge of the Crna Reka, in the most remote area of southwestern Serbia, on the border with Montenegro. It is surrounded by high rocks and lush century-old forests. It dates back to the thirteenth century, when a small church dedicated to Saint Archangel Michael was built in a large cave above the bed of the Crna Reka. Soon, ascetic monks built their cells around the church, walled up the cave, and erected a small wooden drawbridge over the dry riverbed. The river sinks just above the monastery and emerges from the ground again after a few hundred meters of its underwater course. In the 15th century, the famous ascetic Saint Joanikije of Devič lived in the monastery with his monks. The saint later moved to the Drenica region, where his relics are still kept today in the Devič monastery. The venerable Peter of Koriša stayed in the monastery for a short time.
History The church of the Crna Reka monastery is dedicated to Saint Archangel Michael, although it can be found in manuscript records that it is dedicated to the Holy Archangels.
It is mentioned in the prologue hagiography of Saint Joanikije of Devič, written probably shortly after the death of this ascetic and his canonization as a saint, and preserved in copies dating from the 18th century.
Since the relics of Saint Peter of Koriša were transferred there, the monastery celebrates Petrovdan (June 29, or July 12 according to the new calendar), which became the monastery's patron saint day and a large folk gathering, assembling numerous believers and admirers. Even today, unfortunately, the exact time of the monastery's creation is unknown. Some scholars believe that the cave church could have originated as early as the era of the Nemanjić dynasty. Dating it furthest into the past is Stojan Novaković, who, speaking of the transfer of the relics of Simeon Nemanja from Hilandar to Serbia, says that the path led "certainly via the Crna Reka monastery in Ibar". This means that the monastery existed at the very beginning of the 13th century. Speaking of the Serbian churches of Saint Archangel, Mirjana Ćorović-Ljubinković asserts that the church in Crna Reka was built by Archbishop Danilo II. Such an opinion implies that the monastery originated sometime in the first half of the 14th century. Folk tradition ties the construction of the monastery to the period after the Battle of Kosovo. Ljubomir Stojanović believes it originated in the 14th century or 15th century. Mila Vulović places the creation of the monastery at the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century, while Hilferding states that the monastery was built by Saint Joanikije of Devič, who asceticized in Crna Reka. His hagiography says that he built the church, formed the monastery, and gathered enough disciples. It is assumed that he had to learn from someone that a suitable place for hermitage existed there, which he could only have found out from those who had already attempted such asceticism. Radomir Stanić states that the similarities of this and other Serbian cave monasteries of the Middle Ages indicate that it dates from an earlier time than what certain data suggest. The lack of such data still leaves the exact origin of this extremely important monastery an open question for scholars. There is almost no data about its history until the second half of the 17th century. What happened in it from the arrival of Saint Joanikije in Devič (which could have happened sometime at the end of the 14th century), until this time, can only be guessed. The oldest record is linked to the year of the creation of the iconostasis, which was completed in 1601 during the time of abbot hieromonk Đenadije. The founders and the brotherhood were engaged in this work. After that, there is no mention of the monastery until 1666, when the Crna Reka hieromonk Gervasije passed away. In 1687, the relics of Stefan the First-Crowned were transferred to Crna Reka, certainly because it was safer for them there. They were there for nine years, after which, as noted by the very sinful hieromonk Misail, they were transferred to the Studenica Monastery.
In 1709, a menaion was copied in the monastery, and in 1714, a panegyric. During the time of abbot Maksim Dobrojević, sometime in the second decade of the 18th century, there was a school in the monastery. The names of two attendees are preserved: priest Sava, from Vitanovac near Kraljevo, and Mijat, from Herceg Novi. The mentioned hieromonk Misail, as the ecclesiarch of Crna Reka, renewed the shroud of Stefan the First-Crowned in 1705. By arriving in Crna Reka, abbot Maksim exhibited great activity on the economic front as well. In 1714, with his own effort and expense, he built a watermill and a fulling mill, which he donated "to the holy archistrategos Michael to serve this church for his soul." In the same year, Maksim's former brother, Georgije Dobrilovac, visited the monastery, and in 1727, hieromonk Georgije Bakovič, who two years earlier had been in Gračanica, where he signed as a "sinful priest". The Islamized Vučetićs from the nearby village of Crniš, of Hoti origin, carried out an attack on the monastery and its property in 1731: "they did not pay, they took some on God's justice, and with great zulm (oppression)." Turkish oppression was also recorded in 1763. Around Christmas that year, two Turks were killed, while abbot Maksim fled wounded to Mount Athos. For the first time, it was recorded that the monastery was deserted. Priest Jeremija Arsenijević Belopoljac built the monastery fountain in 1793. Three years later, a certain hieromonk Nikodim donated a hagiography to the church, and a certain Jablan bound a candelabrum in the same year. In 1798, the icon of the Mother of God was painted. The monastery was burned by the Turks in the 18th century. It is assumed that this could have been around 1763, when massive Turkish oppression ruled and when sources record that it was abandoned.
The 18th century does not abound with data about life in the monastery either. It was only recorded in 1870 that Savo Gačanin from Kotor donated a reliquary for Saint Peter, which was built by Josif Savin. Four years later, hieromonk Ananije Milovanović renewed the church, the lodgings, the bridge on Suvovar (the dry part of the Crna Reka bed, which sinks above and emerges below the monastery), and made a basket for books. When Alexander Hilferding visited the monastery in 1867, he noted that these books had suffered considerably from moisture. At the end of the century, a school began to operate in Crna Reka. There are testimonies that the monastery in this century was, among other things, the seat of the Russian deputy, the consul from Kosovska Mitrovica, the consul of the Kingdom of Serbia, and the Kingdom of Montenegro. The Sopoćani Memorial contains a large number of undated records mentioning benefactors from surrounding places, among whom are members of the Muslim population from the nearby village of Crniš.
Monasticism and clergy
The monastery and its surroundings are far from roads and travelers, making it exceptionally suitable for monastic life and hesychasm. The first Crna Reka ascetic, who is reliably known, is Saint Joanikije, later called Devički (of Devič). He, most likely, came to Crna Reka sometime at the end of the 14th century, where he devoted himself to strict monastic life. He spent some time there, becoming a teacher to young monks who came to him. Regarding the cave where Saint Joanikije practiced asceticism, Petar Kostić writes at the beginning of the 20th century: "From the place where this is seen, and further on, there is a small space and within it a place in the stone, where Saint Janićije of Devič sat and prayed to God. It is well known where he held his right and left shoulder, because the stone is carved out, from which a little clear water flows. This place is considered holy, and a vigil lamp burns there constantly. To the left of that place, an underground corridor is also seen, which is — according to stories — very long and leads to the top of the hill. They say, through this corridor Saint Janićije went out to the hill, looked for food and hid in dangerous moments. To verify if this underground corridor really leads to the top of the hill, they let a rooster inside, and it came out through this corridor and crowed at the top of the hill". In the vicinity, there are also many other caves where ascetics lived. When monks and common people started coming to Saint Joanikije, he, for the sake of monastic silence, left Crna Reka and returned to Devič. It is certain that in the 15th and 16th centuries, in the times of Turkish invasions, the monastery, as a hidden place, had its abbots and monks. One of the first abbots known is hieromonk Đenadije, during whose time the iconostasis was finished in 1601. The recorder who noted the completion of the work on the iconostasis also notes the help of the brethren on that job. It was probably during the time of this abbot that the fresco painting of the church and the last works on it were finished. At that time, painter monks stayed in the monastery, working on the church's frescoes, among them certainly Zograf Longin and his assistants Petronije and Roman.