His Holiness the Serbian Patriarch Mr.. On July 28, 2024, Porfirje will visit the suffering village of Velika in the Budimljana-Nikšić Diocese, where, on the occasion of the eightieth anniversary of the suffering of Serbs from this and surrounding villages of Upper Pomerania, he will serve the Holy Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Martyrs Kirik and Julita, beginning at 9:00.
The Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church at its regular session on May 24, 2017 in Belgrade, at the proposal of the then Bishop of Budimlje-Niksic, Mr. Joanikia, now Metropolitan of Montenegro and Seaside, was added to the image of the Holy Martyrs of Velika and Upper Pomerania. Serbian victims of Nazi terror from Veliki Ržanica and Gornji Ržanica near Mount Čakor were enrolled in the diptych of saints on July 28, 1944, joining the 28 children who starved to death in Plav prison in 1941. Fighters of the infamous German divisions "Prinz Eugen" and the 21st SS Division "Gorny Skanderbeg" on the feast of the holy martyrs Kirik and Julita brutally slaughtered or left alive 427 Serbian weaklings, children, women, old men and other unarmed population in the villages of Upper Polim in just two hours. Only 171 children and young men under the age of 20 were killed then in the justice of God. Velika, as the most affected village in the Upper Poliml, became a gathering place for the memory of all the victims Upper Polimlje, victims of the Nazis during World War II. In addition to the Germans, the massacres in Velica involved ballistas and vulnetari (the so-called Muslim militia) from Plav, Gusinje, Bihor, and from Kosovo and Metohija, many of whom enjoyed privileges even after the war, during the communist regime. These Nazi-fascist crimes, in proportion to the number of inhabitants of Velika and Gornji Polimlje, are considered among the worst in Europe during the Second World War in terms of their heinousness and speed of execution. In the villages at the foot of the Chakor, there was not a house in which two or more household members were not killed. Many families and houses were destroyed forever, up to fifteen people were killed from one household, it is recorded that more than 20 members of the Gojković family were killed. The families of Knežević, Vucetić, Živalević, Paunović, Tomović, Belanović, Jokić, Popović, Simonović, and Stešević were particularly hard hit.
The Church-People's Assembly is held annually on the Memorial Day of the Holy New Martyrs of Great and Upper Polimskie on July 28, when the Church also honors the Holy Martyrs Kirik and Iulita. The descendants of the dead, as a sign of prayerful remembrance of the martyrdom of their ancestors, began the construction of the Church of Saints Kirik and Iulita on July 28, 1994, when the the foundations of the church were consecrated to the glorious memory of Metropolitan. Montenegro and the coast, Amfilohije. The finished church was consecrated on July 28, 2001 by Metropolitan Amfilohije and Bishop Ioannikije.
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