The Monastery at Ždrelo
Reškovica lies roughly four kilometres from Ždrelo, in the Homolje country of the Braničevo district. Serbian tradition names Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović as its founder in the fourteenth century, and its original dedication was to the Holy Trinity.
The monastery is unusual in plan: the church raised during the modern restoration carries three levels, one above another, dedicated respectively to the Synaxis of the Holy Apostles (below), Saint Catherine of Sinai (middle), and the Holy Trinity (above). Rather than build on the medieval foundations, the restorers set the new church roughly twenty metres north of the original site.
The Destruction of 1688
In 1688 Turkish forces plundered, burned, and razed the monastery. Accounts of the event report that the then-abbot, the hieromonk Pajsije, was killed together with the entire brotherhood of priests and monks under his care; a Serbian devotional account describes them as slain like lambs, cut down in the Homolje wilderness.
One monk is said to have survived. Named Atanasije, he is reported to have fled to Russia and to have left an account of the atrocities he had witnessed.
Restoration and Glorification
The rebuilding of Reškovica began in 1991, following the arrival of the hieromonk Dušan Sinajte, who has directed the work for some three decades; Archimandrite Tadej of Vitovnica is named as instrumental in the early stages of the restoration. The monastery is presently led by the abbess Ekatarina.
At the May 2025 session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops, the Serbian Orthodox Church entered the Holy Martyrs of Oreškovica in its Book of Saints. Their feast falls on April 21, which is kept on May 4 of the civil calendar; the first liturgical celebration of the feast was observed on May 4, 2026.
Relics & Shrines
The relics of the abbot Pajsije and his brotherhood were found in 2021 among the foundations of the church as it was being reconstructed. They are kept in the upper church of the three-level building, the level dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and are reported to work wonders.
The monastery also holds relics unconnected with the martyrs: since 2015 a rib of the Neomartyress of Jasenovac, and since 2016 vestments of the Serbian King Milutin, brought from the Church of Saint Nedelja in Sofia.
Miracles & Traditions
Historically Documented: the 1688 destruction of the monastery by Turkish forces is recorded in the monastery's history; the uncovering of the relics in 2021 during the reconstruction, and the glorification of the martyrs by the Holy Assembly of Bishops in May 2025, are matters of recent record.
Traditional Accounts: the founding of the monastery by Prince Lazar in the fourteenth century is held by tradition. The name of the abbot Pajsije, the killing of the whole brotherhood with him, and the escape of the single surviving monk Atanasije to Russia rest on Serbian ecclesiastical and popular accounts rather than on the monastery's own documented history — the standard historical treatment of Reškovica records the destruction of 1688 without naming an abbot or a massacre of the brethren. The relics in the upper church are reported to be wonderworking.
