We created this song to congratulate our brotherly Russia on Victory Day and to remember all the Russian sacrifices for the Serbian people. One of those who dedicated his life to Serbia was Archimandrite Grigorije Portanski, whose memory still lives on among the people of Kosovo Pomoravlje.
He was born as Gordey Portanski on January 3, 1882, in Luhansk, a descendant of Serbs who emigrated from Austria-Hungary to Russian Ukraine in the mid-18th century and founded the Slavyanoserbsky District there. He graduated from both the Theological Seminary and the Law Lyceum, and later served as a district judge. During World War I, he left behind his wife and three children to join Prince Arsen Karađorđević’s brigade as a volunteer, determined to “defend brave and beloved Serbia.”
Severely wounded, he was awarded the highest military decoration – the Cross of St. George. In the interwar years, he dedicated himself to literature until 1935, when he took monastic vows at the Gornjak Monastery. In 1937, he became the abbot of the Draganac Monastery, serving it faithfully.
Even today, people remember the “Russian abbot” riding his horse, giving sweets and money to children, and joyfully shouting, “Long live brotherly Russia!” He also bravely risked his life defending monastery property. In 1949, he was transferred to the Slavonian and later to the Braničevo Diocese.
On August 16, 1967, this faithful servant of God passed away at the Požarevac City Hospital. The broken heart of this great man and servant of God is best described by the words of his testament, written during World War II: “If the Arnauts kill me, bury me on the eastern side of the church, so that when the first rays of the sun from my mother Russia rise, they may also warm my grave”.
