Let's protect our quiet sanctuaries, because eternal vistas are preserved in them.
Senancourt
I was on Ratac, in the sanctuary of St. Mary, it was a wonderfully bright day, March 29, Friday, year 2024. S Mustafa Canko, a friend, dear and permanent. He was coming from Ulcinj, I was waiting in Bar. The day before I asked him: can we go to Mrkojeviće? The rest is for us to negotiate. And a few days before the meeting with Canko, in Bar I saw Mr Dr. Božidar Šekularac. Then he gave me a newly published and very interesting book: Montenegrin rulers, noblewomen and princesses.
Spring awakens in me the desire for Prapratna, the search for the residential center of the Dukljan kings, and this spring it is like that. I spoke with a professor, an expert on ancient kings and dynasties, that "kingdom from the beginning", and the cities of the Great Diocletian, which Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus mistakes in action Imperial administration (On managing the empire): Gradac, Novigrad, Lontodokla. That's what the great emperor claims, and I don't believe that neither he nor his imperial office would shrink. Although there is no trace of them today, at least on earth. He does not mention Prapratna, but she was, others mention her. Several theories and assumptions are located in Mrkojević's space, and not only that space. Šekularac claims that Prapratna was in Mrkovsko polje, in the middle. He based his claim on the basis of a long-ago conversation with the oldest people of that region. Somewhere in those areas, more precisely in a place still called Prapratna, I looked for her with Dr. Savo Marković in the spring of 2011. Marković's book NOBILITY OF BARA IN A HUNDRED BIOGRAPHICAL RECORDS has just been published, another in a series of his major scientific works. I have a long drinking relationship with Sava, and every meeting is an intellectual and friendly holiday. I always learn something significant new from him. And this time it was like that. Savo writes songs, but does not publish them. I had the privilege of reading them. And poetically, it is very special!
I wanted to see Markovsko Polje and the possible location of Prapratna, I planned for Canka to take me there this Friday. The call of the Virgin of War prevails, so in the early afternoon we head towards the remains of the sanctuary, which is located three kilometers from Bar, in the direction of Sutomor and the Haj - Nehaj fortress.
A brief history
Ratac, more precisely the monastery of Saint Maria Ratačka (Santa Maria de Rozeto) is today the ruins of a large monastery complex, which existed and developed from the 1247th to the XNUMXth century. It was mentioned for the first time in XNUMX, but it is certain that it existed earlier. During the XNUMXth century, the monastery was mentioned more often in Dubrovnik documents. He had a turbulent past, blooming moments and those that ticked his autumn.
Pavle Mijović in the book A notorious legacy, this is how he perceives the complex and the environment in which the monastery is located: "Especially emphasizing the exceptional value of the landscape offered by Rtački rt is not the same as defending some other forest on a tongue of land stretched out into the sea. Here, the work of nature and the work of human hands created a synthesis and symbiosis of life and history in their own way. There are few such magical places as this one that can count such a past in millennia. From the beginning of the Illyrian civilization, one of the largest mounds of a prehistoric man, perhaps the hero of the people who were under Queen Teutu and her son Gents showed courage and determination to defend himself against a hundred times stronger force, the Roman legionnaires."
My experience - Jevrem's verses
Canka and I approach that once magnificent temple complex, the abbey, blended into a wonderfully beautiful Mediterranean environment, and now a ruin, just as magnificent, through a pine forest. The approach itself has something mystical, like the atmosphere and the air we breathe. The entrance gate, the interior space, the walls partially preserved, the sky above and the sea lapping the peninsula. The eternal murmur, which does not cease, inevitably awakens the tide within us. It is these tides that make the past live in man! The dead in the living. The centuries that have passed here, leaving their traces, on worn steps. And something holy that flickers over the ruins, and sanctity cannot be worn out. It was absorbed by the landscape, stone and wood, maquis and other evergreen trees that give the environment a special tone and breath. Life more permanent than life!
It feels like spring, there are flowers in the ruins. Canka draws my attention to the sacred trees that have grown out of the ground: figs, olives and pomegranates. Holy places, after being destroyed by barbarians and time, are echoed by these trees, which give the place a special mystique. It is the same in monasteries and next to monasteries. Next to churches and temples. It's the same here. It radiates light. The spirit of the place. Give the wrote: "There are places that radiate inexhaustible energy." Ratac is undoubtedly such a place, I add my feeling to Darrell's statement.
Somehow naturally, in this very place in the early spring afternoon, Canka's voice (and he knows countless verses!), echoed the verses from the song PRECISTA KRAJINSKA Jevrem Brković, published in the book Dukljan prayers:
Most Pure Lady, who are you in everything,
Your sick son returns to you tonight,
You don't need him, he'll need you -
I often say that to myself in agony.
The tower of heaven under the baked sky,
Healed threshold, doorpost and altar -
From the image of Our Lady chained in silver
A wild pomegranate blossoms in the baptismal font.
......................................................
Silence, and in the silence, Canka's voice:
.................................................. ..
I trace my trace, the kin of my kin,
I offer you a gift of sins forgiven:
Be my church, the dwelling place of my God,
My refuge from the darkness within me.
The verses echoed through the ruins with timeless power, dissipating into countless echoes. Giving tone to the day, color to the landscape, speech to the stones, smile to the plants. The entire landscape.
Canka will soon publish the book THE PIRATE REPUBLIC OF ULCINJ, and at the same time she is working on the project of Marian shrines in Montenegro, temples and churches dedicated to the Holy Mother of God, and the paths that lead to them, possible future tourist destinations. It will be an interesting project, traces of which he also covered in his previous books. An important Marian sanctuary is the Prečista Krajina na Krajina, an endowment Samuel's daughters Kosare - Teodor and Dukljanski Prince Vladimir, to which Brković dedicated the song. And that shrine is in ruins. Somewhere recently, I saw a photo where the shrines are dumping garbage next to it. It was not in a better position even a few years ago when I visited it. I feel the need to write it down, and thus to ask the question: Where are we? And why are we where we are?!
The voice of the chronicler
It is assumed that it was written in the monastery on the Ratac peninsula, which Mustafa and I visit The Chronicle of the Dukljanin Pope. That place was a scriptorium where books were written and duplicated. The Chronicler himself says in the introduction of his work:
Since I was asked by you, beloved brothers in Christ and honorable priests of the holy metropolitan seat of the Dukljan church, as well as many patricians, and especially the young men of the city of Bar, who amuse themselves not only by listening and reading about wars but also by participating in them - as it is custom among young people - to translate the "Book of the Goths", which in Latin is called "Regnum Sclavorum" in which all their deeds and their wars are recorded, from Slavic into Latin, and since I feel obliged to your brotherly charity, I forced my age and tried to grant the request. But let none of the readers think that I have written anything other than the sayings of our (church) predecessors and ancient patricians, which sayings have reached me through true preaching.
Here, once again, I must call upon the precious Pavle Mijović, who in the mentioned book A notorious legacy says: "But only because it can be assumed that Pop Dukljanin (the writer of the Bar genealogy) composed his work within the walls of the cloister of the Ratac Monastery, in its scriptory and library, which he himself indicates when he writes: that he was asked by the clergy of the archbishop's seat in Bar, from the elders and young men of the town (he does not say: also from the monks from Rac, which is superfluous if he was among them, my remark, PM) to translate from "Slavic into Latin" the "Writing on the Goths" which in Latin is called "Regnum Sclavorum" - the Ratač Monastery should have been preserved as the only material and authentic memorial environment in which our first was created until the appearance of the "Mountain Wreath" the most famous book. If they had such a testimony about the antiquity of their cultural tradition, others would have covered the few stones that were still left in the foundation of that cloister with dry stone," concludes Mijović.
Well, maybe the Chronicler wrote down the words from the beginning in this very place, where we stand today, staring at the open sea and lofty hills. Both the sea and the hills are there. And the word of the Chronicler. It is written always in the advantage to survive. The chronicler had this in mind and that is why he wrote the Chronicle for the then youth of the city of Bar, and all those who would come later. Without his chronicle there would be a big black hole in our memory and duration. The chronicler confirmed and affirmed, and with his beginning he indicated what his intention was, introducing into the letters, in addition to history, a part of his soul, which flickered somewhere on this day, in this pure sky.
Letters do not die, and neither does the spirit in them. I imagine abbots, scribes, their hands and manuscripts. On parchment by candlelight. At full moon. That image, that magnificent sight, does not leave me. What the Chronicler writes down - that time does not erase. And after he himself slips out of human form, he continues to live in his own handwriting.
The call that never stops
The arrival at Ratac was called by a primal call. And when the primal calls, we must respond. That wartime afternoon from the ruins of the former sanctuary, I called Katarina Mitrović, the author of the capital book BENEDICTINCES IN THE AREA OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BAR AND THE DIOCESE OF KOTOR - 9th century - 1571.) The invitation is so natural. It is almost impossible to leave this place without hearing Katarina. She obliged us with her work. She looked forward to the invitation. Those connections are necessary for further walking, diving into the depths of our past, and stepping on the road to the future. In the chapter of the book, titled Ratac Abbey, Katarina wrote: "Ratačka Abbey represents a unique complex whose remains, still insufficiently studied, allow the creation of certain assumptions about how everyday life took place inside the monastery ramparts. For several centuries, this monastery was an important center from which social and cultural models spread, which significantly contributed to shaping the microcosm in the center of which it was located."
Poetry in stone
On this occasion, I cannot help but think of the three tombstone inscriptions on the church of St. George in Bar, which are truly great poetry, and refer to three church pastors, archbishops, Petra, George i Jovana. Any of them that I should take are of great poetic strength, and I take the first one, the one that refers to Peter:
In this grave lie the bones and life force of Peter;
this bar shepherd was a teacher of teachers;
he surpassed the former sages in his knowledge of rites;
he despised the greedy, gave liberally to the poor;
he managed the church, excelling in helping the people.
They say that he hasn't finished yet thirty years,
When death appeared to him on the twenty-sixth of the month.
Dr. Savo Marković told me that he was the first to notice these three inscriptions Archbishop Andrija Zmajević, during his first visit to Bar, which was in 1671.
While we are silent, the stones speak and the letters carved into the stone. It's like that every time and it's like that this time. We were silent in awe, the stones spoke. We saw off the sun, which was going on its way to the west, and we returned to ourselves and our time, Canka to Ulcinj, and I to Bara, where I spent the last few days of March.
(April, 2024)
Bonus video:
