TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Dominik dear pupil, because I know it will be balm for his soul. O Lord, grant strength to the word and wit of your humble servant Matija so that this endeavor might be fruitful, so that the truth about Bishop Dominik not sink in the darkness of ages.

I

I first met Dominik, Bishop of Svač, before he was honored with miter and staff, in the time of internal division and general chaos before the last attack of our neighbors on Dioclea. The illustrious Dioclean archbishop Gregory was attempting, with all his might, to preserve the dignity of the cathedra of Bar. We too wished to aid in that just endeavor, because our house of God, along with the fraternal church in Solin, 5 was the first in the whole of Illyria. One spring morning, in the year of our Lord 1178, Abbot Martin called me to his chamber. I was tired because I had stayed up all night with a text, in which I found fascinating words about events in our church in the late ninth century, as well as about its property and assets. When I went up to the Right Reverend to pay homage, I espied Brother Lucian and an unfamiliar friar in a shadowy corner. When subsequently he introduced us, Abbot Martin began to extol the ancient monastery and the Church of Sergius and Bacchus in the bishopric of Skadar, from where this monk by the name of Elia came, and exalted it as the crypt of

5. A town just north of Split.

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