The Conception of Eternal Life: With Special Reference to the Gospel of St. John

By The Very Reverend Milan G. Popovich

The Very Reverend Dr. Milan G. Popovich was born in Banat, Serbia, in 1896 and emigrated to the United States in the late 1920s. With degrees from Oxford University and the University of Pittsburgh, Father Popovich was a pillar of the Serbian Orthodox Church. He was a priest, educator, builder, and musician. The industry and determination of the late Father Popovich are impressed deeply in the memories of the Orthodox faithful.

Although well known among many of the Serbian Orthodox Church, he is far less known outside that sector. The Conception of Eternal Life is an in-depth look at spirituality and eternal life written by Father Popovich in 1922, while he was a young student of theology at Oxford University. You will learn how Father Popovich’s experiences at Oxford helped formulate his faith.

Father Popovich died in 1975, but his legacy continues. The Conception of Eternal Life can strengthen the faith of all who believe in God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Jun 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483413044

Book preview

THE CONCEPTION OF

ETERNAL LIFE

With Special Reference to the Gospel of St. John

The Very Reverend Milan G. Popovich

Copyright © 2014 The Very Reverend Milan G. Popovich.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1305-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1306-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1304-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014909717

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 6/17/2014

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Very Reverend Dr. Milan G. Popovich, affectionately known as Popo, was born in 1896. He was a priest, educator, builder, and musician. The industry and determination of the late Father Popovich, aided by his loving and supportive Protinica Zorica, are impressed deeply in the memories of Pittsburgh-area Serbs. Their efforts helped attract and keep countless active members and firm believers.

Popo and Protinica illuminated everyone they touched with the light of Christian faith in times when few other assets were available—money was scarce in the 1930s, work was hard, and ethnicity was no advantage. Community members were taught the profound meaning of holy orthodoxy and encouraged to remain firm—whatever the times—in the example of Serbia’s patron, Saint Sava. In a word, Popo was a motivator. It all began for the Popovich family with the trek to America and five decades of service to God and people. From the beginning, a serious commitment to studies and matters of the spirit set young Milan Popovich apart.

Born in Obilicev, Banat, and educated in Novi Sad and Sremski Karlovci, he caught the attention of the proper authorities within the Serbian Patriarchate. Soon he was rewarded with a scholarship to one of the world’s foremost centers of learning, England’s Oxford University. Tuition and other expenses were paid for by the Anglican Church of England. However, Milan had to also teach himself the English language, and while attending Oxford, the promising young seminarian would spend three years writing this thesis. Being a mere scholarship winner had its drawbacks. Popo was not entitled to eat with the students who paid their own way. Instead, he was forced to seek sustenance in a soup kitchen. Always hungry, he would take his daily bread ration, put it in his pocket, and keep it there throughout the day. Unknown to his classmates, young Milan would pacify frequent pangs of hunger by quietly patting his hand against his pocket and feeling the small reserve of bread inside. What he lost in physical sustenance, however, was more than made up by the intellectual and spiritual nourishment he gained in Oxford’s invigorating academic environment.

This was a golden age of religious study for the Serbian Orthodox in Great Britain. Among the outstanding figures there at that time was the great Serbian theologian and scholar Saint Nikolai Velimirovich. The mighty Archpastor endeavored to acquaint the Anglican establishment with the power and the majesty of Orthodox Christendom. Young Milan Popovich was witness to this priceless era, learning and growing in the classrooms of Oxford under the guidance of Serbia’s spiritual greats.

Following his return to the royal Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929), Popo met his future spouse, Zorica Bokorov. She was the motherless child of a wealthy farmer in Pancevo, Serbia. The Bokorov homestead was well-known for its prize-winning white horses, and the future priest’s wife, soon to be known by the title of Protinica, had lived a privileged life. When not at finishing school, she spent time with her affluent aunts. In those days, community standing and family honor clearly defined the individual. Protinica knew that the Popovich’s were a good family and that all three of Milan’s brothers were priests. On December 24, 1922, Milan Popovich and Zorica Bokorov were married. The newlyweds moved to Velika Kikinda, Banat, the young Popovich’s first parish.

One year following their marriage, Dusan, the couple’s first child, was born. Just eight days before his first birthday, the toddler died of a convulsion in Popo’s arms. Popo never fully overcame the grief, although the bitter moment was somewhat assuaged by the birth of son Stojan nine days later. Daughter Stojanka soon joined the growing family. The Serbian Orthodox Church sent Father Popovich to Akron, Ohio. Like many Serbian colonies, the Akron parish had a rocky start. With no parish home in which to settle, the Popovich’s spent the next five years living with various parishioners. From home to home, Popo marched and drove, collecting coins and small bills for the construction of a church. His third child, Zoran, born in 1931, accompanied him.

In 1934, Popo and Protinica left Akron. A newly built church was left behind. The property had been fully paid for, and the mortgage was burned. The next stop was western Pennsylvania, whose history is tied directly to the earliest days of Serbian Orthodoxy in America. Popo arrived at the St. Sava Parish of McKeesport-Duquesne, the second-oldest Serbian Orthodox congregation in America, founded in 1900. The original church structure was consecrated at the turn of the century by Bishop Tikhon of the Russian Orthodox Diocese in America, who later became Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, died a martyr, and was later canonized. Other buildings also awaited Popo in McKeesport. The internationally renowned physicist, Professor Michael Pupin, had lent the community money needed for the construction of a hall as well as the parish home into which the Popovich’s eventually settled. For Protinica, the mill towns of those days were a long way from the privileges of Old World Europe. All the cooking for the many parish activities took place in Protinica’s kitchen. The hustle and bustle of public life in a busy parish home increased in 1937 with the birth of Ray, Popo and Protinica’s fourth child.

Well-educated himself, Popo continually drew on his own background in order to help his church and community. Much of his effort was directed at schooling his flock in the tenants of Orthodox Christianity. This work was impressive both in quantity and in quality. He published various periodicals, contributed to the American Srbobran and other Serbian newspapers, and broadcast with the choir on the government radio program Voice of America, which was beamed behind the Iron Curtain. Popo organized church schools and Serbian schools, compiled a republished and still best-selling Divine Liturgy handbook, and helped compile a matins service book for children. Father Popovich became the editor of a publication called Serbian Orthodoxy and wrote the popular SSF (Serbian Singing Federation) pamphlet Why I Am a Serbian Orthodox Christian. Moreover, he taught the Serbian language to American servicemen, wrote texts and manuals for Sunday schools throughout the land, conducted courses for diocesan Sunday school teachers, and assumed the office of Educational Supervisor for the Serbian Orthodox Church in America and Canada. In 1937, Popo obtained a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh.

In addition to being an education priest and a music priest, Popo was a construction priest. The old church building in McKeesport quickly became inadequate for the growing community and its many activities. It was time to build. Popo once again went from home to home, soliciting donations from the self-sacrificing pioneers of the St. Sava congregation. Protinica often accompanied him, and the parishioners enjoyed their visits. These efforts helped the colony procure a loan, and in 1951, a new church