In the Mountains of Montenegro

I know yesterday I said that we visited my favorite monastery so far, but today topped yesterday! Even though we got off to a bad start with no water at the hotel, we began a winding adventure up a mountain to the Monastery of Ostrog, high up in the rock of Ostroska Greda.  This monastery was founded in the 17th c. by Bishop Vasilije, Metropolitan of Herzegovina, who died at Ostrog, buried here, and later sainted and proclaimed a miracle worker.  We saw the reliquary in which his body is enshrined and kept in the cave church at the monastery.  We learned from our travel notes that this monastery is the meeting place of all three confessions:  the Orthodox, the Catholics and the Muslims, because it is believed that the enshrined body of St. Basil of Ostrog makes miracles work.  It is said that praying by his body, many have been cured, and many pilgrims today continue to come here, seeking healing.  

It's hard capturing the dramatic view from the bus window - but we often felt, as we wound our way up the mountain, that we could fall right off the edge of the earth!

How's this for a winding road??  Even though we had to switch to a smaller bus halfway up, the bus still had to inch forward and back up at each curve...

And here we are getting on our smaller bus...

And when traffic came the other direction, someone had to back up to a wider spot in the road so the other could pass!

And finally, the entrance to the monastery.

This monastery is literally carved into the side of the rock - AMAZING!!

Notice the rainbow in the bottom of this next picture.  This was probably a trick of the camera lens, but I like the notion of a rainbow greeting us right as we walked through the gate into the monastery...

Legend has it that this grapevine growing out of the rock sprung up at the exact place where St. Basil of Ostrog is said to have died.

After our visit, we wound our way half way back down the mountain and stopped at the bishop's  and monks' residence, where we were warmly greeted by one of the monks.  We waited for a while, hoping to meet the bishop, but he was not able to join us.  Their hospitality, though, was most gracious.  Take a look at the table of food!

Words of greeting and thanks were offered on both sides, and Fr. Wright was even presented with an icon as a gift from the monastery and the bishop.   We were all given books from their gift shop (and they were even in English!) 

The GTS crew - Fr. Wright, Shelley, and me...

And a few more shots of the mountains as we drove away from Ostrog...

It was a long drive across Montenegro and back into Serbia, but we finally arrived at the Hotel Atlas.  We had yet another late dinner, but thank God for a clean, modern room and a shower with good water pressure - especially wonderful since the morning started with no water! Here's the view the next morning from our hotel window.