The power and effectiveness of words is indestructible

Believers or atheists in Montenegro, especially those born in Cetinje, must feel special respect for the person and work Petar I Petrović Njegoš, the secular and spiritual ruler of Montenegro who laid the foundations and indicated the direction of development of the modern state structure, to which he was fully committed. This feeling of deep respect and admiration for his personality is formed through knowledge of the then reality of stormy socio-historical events and circumstances in which the Montenegrin ruler and saint acted. In this dynamic time frame of his reign, all the greatness and strength of a complex personality like Petar I Petrović Njegoš can be seen.

Within that real and imaginary image, the light of the halo of divine inspiration of the Metropolitan's nature especially radiates and shines. His worldly foresight and consistency, the spiritual greatness of self-sacrifice for the peace and glory of the people he led, made him, as he called himself an "unfortunate well-wisher", be declared a saint during his lifetime. He was a brave military leader who carried a drawn saber in battle and a wise shepherd of God who humbly kissed the cross.

In that stormy and troubled time, Petar I Petrović Njegoš became Saint Petar the Wonderworker of Cetinje. The worldly and the spiritual existed in his being in the form of a strong unity that in its dynamic permanence necessarily permeated each other. Among his people he enjoyed respect and inspired awe. He based his life principles on evangelical teachings, on those postulates that emphasize the fundamental qualities of the highest humanist values, on love, peace, fraternal harmony and justice.

Unlike those first saints, martyrs for the Christian faith, who in unwavering devotion to their God were subjected to the most brutal physical torture and killing, Saint Peter of Cetinje experienced and endured the inner martyrdom of his Christian being. He offered and laid his sacrifice on the altar of the earthly temple of his Montenegro, whose inviolable sanctuary was and remains its freedom.

Addressing the people of the mountains in his "Epistles", the saint from Cetinje writes: "You know how I always told you and all Montenegrins in every place, begging everyone and swearing that you live in peace and harmony among yourselves. And how much effort and pain I have suffered from the beginning until now, only God knows; and doing everything for the common good and freedom of the people, without any trickery or cunning, but with a truer and purer heart, wanting to see you and the rest of my brothers freed from the enemy's yoke and oppression... I forgot about my soul and my health, and transferred for you and other Montenegrin brothers, not to lose, but to maintain your honesty and glory and to establish your precious willingness and freedom, which God has given you beyond any nation in the world..."

How much strength and skill, tactics and patience were needed to tame the untamed mountain temper in those whom he called "eternal evildoers and torturers", "arbitrary executioners" to bring them under "more obedient". He wanted the rule of law and laws in the country to strengthen the harmony and unity so necessary in uncertain times in which there was a constant threat of an external force that could threaten the survival of his people.

That is why the imperative to establish and respect the law had to be a guarantee of internal harmony among the feuding tribes.

The ability of St. Peter the Wonderworker of Cetinje to implement what he, guided by the principle of justice, stood for with all his being, was especially enabled by the most effective natural vocal instrument - the Word.

The concept of the word in the case of the Miracle Worker of Cetinje shows all the strength of its real and mystical power. The phrase from John's Gospel "And the word became flesh" transmitted and modified in the context of the life mission of the Metropolitan of Montenegro, and the circumstances in which he acted, acquires a new purposeful meaning: "And the word became a deed". That work, the great work of the Miracle Worker of Cetinje, was accomplished precisely by the power of his words, equally when he addressed those to whom he preached, whom he blessed, or those whom he cursed. He was aware of what and how much the authority of the Bible, examples from the Holy Scriptures, meant for establishing moral values ​​in the life and behavior of his compatriots.

He was also aware of the power that the spoken word has even when the person who spoke it is no longer among the living and enjoys the authority of a holy person. Such a word remains to live forever as an inviolable truth, as a blessing, as a warning or a justified punishment. Rightfully trusting in the effectiveness of words, convinced by his difficult and arduous experience, he also shaped his thoughts in written form. Thus, the famous "Epistles" gained the status of a unique moral and religious code, an excellent literary work written in ascetic language in a coherent structure of a suggestive narrative. When a case of immorality from the profane world needs to be condemned, then a selected example from the New Testament is used, which will have a positive effect on the ignorant and unenlightened masses, precisely through the indisputable importance of the Gospel text.

That is why in one place in the "Epistles" the Miracle Worker of Cetinje reprimands a certain Per Radov who left his wife and children with the intention of marrying his daughter-in-law. For this isolated, individual case, as a paradigm for immorality in the marital relationship, for the desecration of the sacrament of marriage, and for the purpose of general affirmation of the norms of exemplary behavior, St. Peter cites an event from the Gospel. John the Baptist rebukes King Herod for his illegal marriage with Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. Although Herod will punish the Baptist by beheading him because of his words of reproach, in the "Epistles" the Miracle Worker of Cetinje writes: "And for all that the wicked man cut off the head of John, but he could not cut off the tongue of the Baptist, nor hide his head in the ground, but three times in the depths of the earth buries... Now think how much more illegal it is to take a daughter-in-law as a wife. Can a Christian even think that, let alone do it." Therefore, the holy word, the spoken living word of the Baptist, transcends his death and lives forever as an unquenchable light of conscience. The power and effectiveness of words is indestructible.

In striving to achieve the goal of freedom, harmony and fraternity as a guarantor of the internal survival of the state, the role of the "fatherland" was extremely important. It is necessary, the Montenegrin Metropolitan pointed out, "to protect the dearest willingness and freedom". In this sense, the crucial importance for the uncompromising realization, the effectiveness of the integrity of the concept of the practical organization of the state, expands from the "Epistle" to the importance that "Stega" had as the first written law. In drafting that law, those gathered under oath, calling on the help of the "Lord God Almighty", strictly obliged, as it is written in the passed law, to solidarity and harmony: "Friend to friend, tribe to tribe and nahija to nahija, hard and pure faith and words out of honor and honesty, we added that we will not betray each other, we will check among ourselves."

The saint's preoccupation and devoted concern for the fate of Montenegro, crowned with victories at Martinići and Krusi, is also expressed through that symbolic connection, through an undivided unity in which the meaning of the Metropolitan's name rhymes with his mission in a mystical way. To the Apostle Peter in the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus says: "You are Peter - the Rock and on that rock I will build my church..." The miracle worker is Peter of Cetinje, the Montenegrin steadfast rock, the living temple that rises from the rocks with which he is primordial and destined bound. "I will not give the ice rocks themselves for any treasure of this world, because even the ice rocks are bathed in heroic blood, (...) I will not have treasures or riches, but I will have honesty, under which I live and want to die together with my people".

Petar I Petrović Njegoš died in Cetinje on October 18, 1830. Today, the Montenegrin people live with his image, who earned the halo of earthly and heavenly glory with his mission in life and his sacrifice for the fulfillment of that mission. That golden crown shines with the dignity of the astonishing greatness of the Wonderworker of Cetinje.