Five years after the death of the Serbian Metropolitan Amfilohije, the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, decided to honor him with the highest state order. This is an act that on paper is presented as a reminder of the “spiritual and social contribution”, but in reality it raises serious questions about the political and moral direction of Podgorica. When Montenegro rewards with a “state honor” a man who not only insulted and incited hatred towards others, but also disfigured the anatomy of the body of Lazar Hrebelanović for fragments of Serbian myth, what message is being sent today to the neighbors and the citizens of Montenegro themselves with this symbolic and politically charged gesture? This act is completely inconsistent with the promotion of good neighborly policies as a basis for stability and development, but also for peace and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Montenegro, in addition to joining NATO - years ago - aims to become a member of the European Union by 2028. The highest state order awarded to the author of the verses "When the Army Returns to Kosovo" seems to be more sincere than Montenegro's pursuit of peaceful and integration policies.

Let's get back to the author and the warmongering verses "When the Army Returns to Kosovo". In the spring of 2023, they appeared as murals in Serbia with a financial investment of 217,000 euros from the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure of Serbia, for their painting everywhere and on every public wall! To their pride, the "Red Star" fan group in Belgrade was also announced on social networks, as they were the writers of most of those words, doing them at their own expense. In order to share responsibility as a unifying issue from this group, they said that the first murals "painted" with those words were made by fans of the "Partizani" Football Club, with the qualification that this is a Serbian issue that stands above every division!

Amfilohije Radović, born in 1938 in Lower Morača, Municipality of Kolasin, Montenegro, was the Metropolitan of Montenegro and Primorje, part of the Serbian Orthodox Church. He died of the Covid-19 virus in October 2020. The funeral procession was accompanied by tensions due to the pandemic and, despite having died of Covid-19, his face was exposed and his followers kissed him non-stop. This event also received extensive media coverage, accompanied by much criticism for disregarding the exceptional circumstances the world was going through.

Metropolitan Amfilohije had visited Kosovo for years, but the years 1999, 2008, 2012, 2015 and 2018 are documented - due to the public and media resonance they had - supported by his inspiring speeches. All his lectures as a liturgical minister were loaded and the day of Saint Vid was an appropriate occasion to speak to the masses about the Serbian nation and religion. Heavenly Serbia, the Curse of Lazarus, the Battle of Kosovo, as well as other myths on Vidovdan go "like hotcakes"! On Vidovdan in 2018, as a guest in the capacity of a minister of the holy liturgy, Amfilohije used the regular sermon to also give a short lecture on the "anatomy" of the body of Lazarus Hrebelanović. "To put the head of Lazarus in a referendum, this can only be done by someone who has no mind, no knowledge, no knowledge, no wisdom, because Kosovo is the head of Lazarus, while his body is in Ravanica. This other part of Serbia is the body of Lazarus" - preached the "servant" of God, Amfilohije. His "anatomical" message completely confused the worshipers of the holy relics, since the remains of the body of Prince Lazarus are actually in Ravanica, in the Municipality of Ćuprija in Serbia - and that together with the head. Even more confusing is the continuation of the metropolitan's sermon: "To give up the head of Lazarus means to be left without a head and to give up yourself and your essence". The image of the heart, head, foot and finger, used in Christian mythological descriptions, is very expressed in the services and is not surprising.

Amfilohije Radović, in his book published in 2010 and reprinted several times later under the title “Kosovo is the head of Lazarus”, extracts and distorts everything in the name of a convincing metaphor for the myth of Kosovo. This book is also written as a free adaptation of church and folk songs: 415 pages that, in the name of Serbian Christian Orthodoxy, spit out bile against every other identity, except for the “heavenly Serb”, are in the cycle of well-known fantasies of Serbian historiography. In one of the Serbian folk songs, “Ječam žela kosovka devojka“ (The Kosovar girl harvests barley), the figure is the girl who saves the harvested barley for the horses to which, she hopes, the “Kosovo girl” will also come - together with the wedding guests. So she says to the barley: “The wedding horses have to eat you”! Amfilohije changes this, so that in his song “Vajza Kosovare” it does not appear that he is expecting wedding guests with horses, but gendarmes, more precisely Serbian horsemen for whose horses she guards the barley she has harvested with her hard work: “The knights’ horses will eat you / the black horses of the distinguished Serbian army.”

Now, the girl whom Amfilohije has awakened to national consciousness and has removed from the “banal” desire for marriage, is associated with “kad se vojska na Kosovo vrati“ (When the army returns to Kosovo). Moreover, she clearly sees how the Serbian army will move through Kosovo. He doesn't want to overlook any glorious place in Serbian history, so “will come before the church of Samadrexha / will water the horses in Sitnica / will ride towards Gazimestan / and will arrive at the famous monastery of Deçan / at the imperial church of Graçanica / then at the holy and blessed Peja / and at the imperial city of Prizren” [pred churchu Samodrežu dojje / napoji konje na Sitnici / projezdi pro Gazimestana / i dojezdi do slavnih Dečana / i do carske larve Gračanice / i do Pećke presvete Krasnice / i Prizrena grada carevoga].

And the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, for distorting the lyrics of a folk song, in which the wedding reception has turned into a reception for the army, cannot be understood otherwise than as a call against peace when he awards the Serbian Metropolitan, Amfilohije, the highest state order of Montenegro. Meanwhile, those who write that line of Amfilohije on the wall near the children's playground, know full well that they are acting in accordance with purpose of nationalist policies, without paying attention to the lies that permeate their history!

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