Gorioc Monastery

Gorioc Monastery is dedicated to St Nicholas Miracle-worker who healed the “burned” /blind/ eyes of Saint King Stefan Decanski after whom the name of the monastery refers – “gori” to burning and “oci” to eyes. Monastery is located in the north-west Kosovo and Metohija, near the little town of Istok on Bela Stena /White Stone/ and is the “metoch” of the Visoki Decani Monastery. The Church yard of Gorioc Monastery consists of the small church of Saint Nicholas, a dormitory and a belfry.

The original one-nave monastery church of Gorioc was built probably in the 14th century but original church has not survived, although it makes the strong spiritual center of the Serb population in Kosovo and Metohija ever since its foundation and during its long history. The church of Gorioc Monastery was reconstructed in the 16th, and the 18th and in the beginning of the 20th century. Gorioc Monastery keeps 11 precious icons painted during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Gorioc Monastery kept a rich collection of the medieval books, including several Serbian manuscripts from the 14th and 15th century, which the Russian Consul and historian A. Gilferding took to preserve them form devastation and loss. Today, they are kept in the Public Library in St. Petersburg.

During the Second World War the Monastery of Gorioc was used by Albanian Nazis as a prison for arrested Serbs and Montenegrins. The Gorioc churchyard, dining-room and dormitories, belfry and the fountain were restored. After the war in Kosovo 1999 all Serb population from the area of the northern part of the Serbian province was forced to leave Kosovo and Metohija, but nuns and Father Sava remained alone without any protection for several days. As soon as the international peace-keepers were deployed they were in charge of protection of the Gorioc Monastery. Today, the Gorioc Monastery is the convent with five nuns and elderly Archimandrite Father Sava. Monks from Decani Monastery regularly visit Gorioc Monastery to serve Sunday and feast-day liturgies, as well as to help the nuns run the place. Gorioc Monastery is guarded by KFOR/EULEX Spanish soldiers who assist nuns in getting necessary supplies and give them military escort when they travel within and out of Kosovo and Metohija or to visit doctor.