Justin Popović

World War I

During the early part of World War I, in autumn of 1914, Popović served as a student nurse primarily in Shkodër, Niš and throughout Kosovo. While in this capacity, he contracted typhus during the winter of 1914 and had to spend over a month in a hospital in Niš. On 8 January 1915, he resumed his duties sharing the destiny of the Serbian Army from Peć to Skadar during which 100,000 Serbian soldiers died. On 1 January 1916 he entered the monastic order in the Orthodox cathedral of Shkodër and took the name of Justin after St. Justin the Philosopher.

Russia

Shortly after he had become a monk, Popović, along with several other students travelled to Petrograd, Russia, for study in the Orthodox Seminary there. It was there the young Popović first dedicated himself more fully to Orthodoxy and the monastic way of life. He learned of the great Russian ascetics: St. Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves in Kiev, St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. John of Kronstadt and others.

Oxford

After his year's study and sojourn in Russia, Popović entered the Theological School in Oxford, England, at the prompting of his spiritual father, Nikolaj. Popović studied theology in London from 1916 to 1926, but his doctoral thesis under the title "Filozofija i religija F. M. Dostojevskog" (The Philosophy and Religion of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky) was not accepted because of its radical criticism of Western humanism, rationalism, Roman Catholicism and anthropocentrism. It was subsequently printed in 1923, when Popović became the editor of the Orthodox journal The Christian Life. Together with his colleagues from the Oxford University, he edited the periodical The Christian Life for twenty years.

Athens

In 1926, Popović was promoted to the title of the Doctor of Theology at the Faculty of Theology, university in Athens, Greece, his dissertation being "Problem ličnosti i saznanja po Sv. Makariju Egipatskom" — The Problem of Personality and Consciousness According to St. Macarius of Egypt. For his course on the Lives of the Saints, he began to translate into Serbian the Lives of the Saints from the Greek, Syriac and Slavonic sources, as well as numerous minor works of the Fathers (homilies of John Chrysostom, Macarius and Isaac the Syrian). He also wrote The Theory of Knowledge According to St. Isaac, which was derived from The Ascetical Homilies of Isaac the Syrian.

From 1930 to 1932, after a short period as Professor in the Theological Academy of St. Cyril and Methodius in Prizren, Serbia, he was an associate of Bishop Joseph (Cvijovich) of Bitola and the man tasked with reorganising the Church of the Carpatho-Russians in Czechoslovakia. The area had seen an increase in those espousing Uniatism, with previously converted Christians of those regions started their conversion back to Eastern Orthodoxy.

Nikolaj Velimirović, John Maximovich of Shanghai and San Francisco, and Popović crossed paths in Bitola.The young Maximovich (a Russian of Serbian ancestry) was Popović's assistant at the theological seminary there, and Velimirović was the Bishop of Ohrid, Macedonia.

Belgrade

Popović was chosen in 1934 as professor of dogmatics at the Theological Faculty of St. Sava in Belgrade. As a professor at the University of Belgrade, he was one of the founders in 1938 of the Serbian Philosophical Society along with a number of noted Belgrade intellectuals.

He was also the professor of dogmatics at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of the University of Belgrade from 1934 until 1945, until World War II. In 1945, with the establishment of the communist state and state atheism, his anti-communism and efforts to convert others to Christianity had little place.^{[citation needed]}

Notable theologian

Porfirije, Serbian Patriarch, stated that Popović is one of the three most notable Serbian theologians recognised internationally.

John Zizioulas – one of the most influential Orthodox theologians of the 20th and 21st centuries– however said the following about Father Justin:

"I have not met a more profound and intelligent orthodox theologian than him."

A fierce opponent of ecumenism, but...

A devoted monk and philosopher of the Eastern Orthodox theology, Popović was a great critic of "ecumenism, providing it was inclined towards relativization of God's Truth", according to Professor John Meyendorff and every bit as much a critic of the "Catholic novelties" and — according to Archimandrite Popović — "the Pope's anti-Christianity".

Conversely, Zlatko Matić’s article "John Zizioulas in the Letters of Holy Father Justin (Popović)" confirms the notion that, in the view of both Zizioulas and Popović, the Orthodox Church ought to be present in ecumenical dialogue and open to diversity, rather than remaining insular as a confession of faith. Zizioulas demonstrates this through his personal participation in ecumenical dialogue, a stance sincerely supported by Justin, as evidenced by their private correspondence between 1966 and 1971. Despite his outward image—and the fact that opponents of ecumenism also claim him as their own, not without reason—he cannot truly be characterized as such. It is evident that he did not oppose sound, theologically grounded ecumenical dialogue; indeed, he actively supported Zizioulas and, more generally, any "ecumenist" whose position was rooted in patristic tradition.

The secret conscience

Until the end of his life, however Popović was a dedicated creator, and it is no wonder that his work is considered as "a great contribution to the Orthodox theology" and he himself as "the secret conscience of the Serbian Church and the entire martyr's Orthodox religion", according to John Karmiris, the Greek academician. His example (Popović's) has been invoked by the Church of Greece Synod, in the strict sense, which banned prayers with members of other Christian denominations.