At peace at home

Priest's remains return to church he founded
By Stan Oklobdzija - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, September 2, 2007Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1

JACKSON -- After 67 years abroad, Father Sebastian Dabovich crossed the Atlantic Ocean one last time to be back home with his flock.

On Saturday, inside a small foothills church choked with incense and sweltering from the triple-digit temperatures outside, people from across the United States stood shoulder to singing the Trisagion, one of the oldest prayers in Christianity, as Dabovich's remains were returned to the soil of his native California.

His bones were washed in rose water and white wine. He was given a new set of priest's vestments to replace the set that decayed along with his body after he was originally buried in 1940.

Upon his earthly remains, a gold cross was placed, which high bishops and the laity alike took turns kissing. Among Orthodox Christians, God's work moves not only through the living but through the remains of holy men as well.

Though in his life, he'd attained the rank of archimandrite, one of the highest stations a monk can achieve, the 200 or so people gathered for the special liturgy in his honor saw him as something between a founding father and a spiritual beacon.

"Without him, there would be no Serbian Orthodox Church in America today," said Father Tom Paul, a protodeacon at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church.

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Many are pushing for this man to be canonized as a saint. Read this nice story.