Protopresbyter Dr. Radovan Bigovic reposed in the Lord on May 31st, 2012.
May 31, 2012.
Protopresbyter Dr. Radovan Bigovic, full professor
Protopresbyter Dr. Radovan Bigovic, full professor and sub-dean of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade, reposed in the Lord on May 31st, 2012, at the age of 56.
Bishop Dr. Maxim:
Today we all share a human sorrow for such an early departure of Father Radovan; however, it is a joyous sorrow that we are imbued by regarding his passing over to the other shore of eschatological freedom of existence in the resurrected creation in the Lord.
I am writing these few lines as a spontaneous expression of my feelings; I am doing this because of our friendship and the love we shared regarding con-celebration at the Altar and mutual love of theology.
Through his unassuming life of a Zemun priest and university professor he filled a hitherto unfilled space in the life of Belgrade and Serbia. His was the mission that no bishop or any of the ordinary faithful could fulfill: to gently annunciate the joyous word of Truth in a specific milieu waking up from its communist nightmare into the strange reality of postmodern confusion… It is a generally shared opinion that he fulfilled his mission both successfully and unpretentiously.
When he asked me some time ago whether to entitle a book he was editing “Sailors of the Sky” (after a painting by Fr. Stamatis Skliris) I immediately agreed. It was then that I discovered in him a common “note”, a rare sense for the feats of sailing of this kind. Without any exaggeration, Father Radovan was a “Sailor of the Sky” in his environment which was known to be affected both by storm and drought, but which he would not allow to turn into shallow waters. He managed to do this mostly owing to his ministry in the Zemun Monastery- church of the Holy Archangel Gabriel. He knew that he drew his strength from there. Now that we are stricken with disbelief that he is gone, we have come to understand a great truth: our awareness of the worth of others comes only after their departure. “It is expedient for you that I go away” (John 16:7), says our Lord to his disciples. It is as if this same message was directed at his parishioners by this faithful servant of Christ, leaving in their hearts a beautiful and an unsetting memory of their shepherd, teacher, witness of an unusual navigation… of a “Sailor of the Sky”.
Departing from us, Father Radovan allows our freedom to measure yet again against the challenge of a physical absence of our loved ones… The real consolation is yet to come.
May the Lord give him rest in the dwelling of the righteous. Memory eternal!
Maxim, the Right Reverend Bishop
of the Western American Diocese
of the Serbian Orthodox Church