PART OF THE MONOGRAPH “GOJKO JAKOVLEVSKI” BY SLAVE KATIN
According to Goyko Yakovleski, Alias Goyko Delchev Rafkin – Goce of Macedonia, the Macedonian millennium long existence looks like a long, rare and almost incredible story, set in the annals of uniqueness and immortali ty. There are rare examples in the history of such a endurance of a nation that has gone through such turbulent amplitudes over the centuries. Rare are examples of a country like Macedonia that is so rich in civiliza tion and cultural virtues and particularities with historical and epic values.
Macedonia, as an ethnic and social organism has been through and gone through so many stages of denial, exhausting oppression and division and splitting, of long and bloody revolts and battles. Until on the historical scene, which resembles the bird Phoenix, has become an inseparable and respected part of the great European, world and universal family.
The infinitely long difficult road is also f illed with the glittering pages of the Mace donian perseverance and toughness, as bib lical Macedonia has gone through the maze of centuries-old insubordination, to finally become constituted and acknowledged, un fortunately, just at the middle of the 20th century.
As a people of European profile, lo cated in the heart of the Balkans, on the ter ritory of ancient Macedonia, where ancient cultures and Roman civilization left numer ous traces, and Christianity and Islam long fought for supremacy. The Macedonian peo ple survived all kinds of pressures, threats and centuries of deprivation of individuality, managing to survive, thanks to its cultural consolidation. Although the benevolence of the fate often bypassed it, the centuries-long exhausting struggle, uprisings, rebellions and defiance, taught the Macedonian people to successfully overcome the cruel school of survival and to finally gain its nation-state system of organization.
Christianity in Macedonia began to be preached in the time of the Holy Apostles. It means that in Polog Christianity dates back to those distant times as well. That is why its richness with cultural and historical monu ments gives a special mark to Polog and its history. It is confirmed by the construction of churches and monasteries.
The population of Polog, and especially the inhabitants of Zubovce are also devoted believers and adherents of the Christian Or thodox faith. Therefore, churches have been built since ancient times, and they served and still serve as the largest gathering place for national and religious unity. Such love toward faith, toward the nation, toward its own church, and toward Macedonia, was es pecially expressed by Goyko Rafkin.
That is why it is rightly said that Chris tian monuments in Zubovce are the work of its builders and icon painters, their owners are all inhabitants of the village, and devo tees of their spiritual and artistic value are all well-intended people who believe in hu man values of faith, love and peace among all people. Church monuments in the village of Zubovce, indeed, have been and are sacred places of rapprochement among Christians.
That is why the Macedonian people of the village even today protect them with the most modern scientific methods, keep and care for those objects that are constant ly open and accessible to the visitors from around the world, and the masters and do nors have communicated through these constructions according to their spiritual virtues. Macedonians have never considered the works of their authors in Macedonia and the diaspora to be their own property, but as a natural circulation of the cultural values and good and religious relations between Christians and other believers.
Not only in ethnic Macedonia, but also in the diaspora, the Macedonian man has built and still builds spiritual-cultural tem ples with a strong passion, love and faith in Orthodoxy. Such is the case with Ortho dox inhabitants of Zubovce who, in order to survive on the areas of their grandparents’ roots, have been friendly with other Balkan peoples for many centuries, thus enduring slavery, assimilation, persecution, and in justice. As Metropolitan Cyril said: “The in habitants of Zubovce have survived and will continue to exist for as long as the world ex ists, because this Macedonian people is bib lical, with a great Christian soul, with faith, hope and love for God and its church.”
To be continue
By SLAVE KATIN
