Свети Кипријан Слепченски - еден непознат новомаченик

Abstract

The emphasis in the scientific research of the Monastery of Slepche until now was put on its cultural, educational and literary activities. This scientific essay treats the spiritual dimension, i.e the holiness in the monastery Slepche. Undoubtedly in this monastery many monks pleased God with their deeds. But one of them had stand out through the practice of martyrdom, and that is the abbot Cyprian who lived in the second half of the XVIII century. We receive information about the character of the abbot-martyr Cyprian from two authentic inscriptions of his time written on two Tetraevangelion from Slepche. The аbbot Cyprian is mentioned for the first time in one inscription written by himself in 1751 (Fig.1) in Gospel from XV century. This inscription gives infor mation about two mills that were built by the hieromonk Cyprian on a private property belonging to some Bele and Nedelko, whereupon was agreed that one of the two mills will be for the owners and the other one for the Slepche monastery. The second known inscription in which is mentioned the abbot Cyprian was made 29 years after the first and is actually the only old and authentic witness of his martyrdom. It is an inscription written by some monk colled Nedelko Petre on the first page of the Slepche‟s Tetraevangelion written by a famous monk and writer from the Slepche monastery Vissarion of Debar in 1548. The second part from the inscription is exactly that which contains the testimony about the great wilderness of the monastery by a group of robbers - Albanian Muslims from Kolun, east of Korca. As the inscription witnesses the abbot Cyprian was captured and the thieves asked him money. After being tortured with burning, the abbot was left half dead, and the monastery was robbed. Besides the silver reliquary with holy relics, whose value the author of the text determines to hundred and twenty pennies, from the monastery were taken three horses laden with copper and clothing, and everything else that had any value. The abbot Cyprian survived until the Glorious Resurrection of Christ, when he passed away due to injuries and burnings caused by the robbers. Thus, according to this testimony the abbot Cyprian of Slepche has passed away on April 17, 1780, after the brutal torture by the robbers of Kolun. With this act the abbot Cyprian, imitating the sacrifice of Jesus for the Church, suffered the sacrifice for his trusted brotherhood and fraternity. The conditions of slavery and the abolition of the autocephalous Archbi shopric of Ohrid were the main obstacles to the inability to spread the cult of the abbot Cyprian. However, his martyrdom was not observed in any known martyro logion from that time, something that has isolated further his image. Today, following the model of the celebration of other newmartyrs, glorified on the basis of similar inscriptions, an official celebration of the Hieromartyr Cyprian can be made.