The first online conference of the Serbian Educational and Cultural Center of St. Helen of Anjou was held on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, on the topic “Holy Queen Helen of Anjou as a link between East and West – then and now”. The keynote speakers were Dr Jelena Erdeljan from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade and Dr Rastko Jović from the Orthodox Theological Faculty of the University of Belgrade. Twenty participants from Serbia and Malta attended the meeting. The moderator was Jelena Jablanov Maksimović, president of the SECC St. Helen of Anjou in Malta.
Dr. Jelena Erdeljan spoke from the point of view of an art historian and she conceived her lecture by first presenting to the audience the most important endowments of the kingdom of Helen and her husband King Uroš the First and then she pointed out the life of St Helen of Anjou and her heritage which was reflected in various purposeful actions that the Queen did for the people. Considering her origin, on her father’s side she was a descendant of the Byzantine Imperial House of Angels (she was the granddaughter of Emperor Isaac II Angelo and the granddaughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem) and on her mother’s side she was of the Byzantine Imperial House of Angels (she was the granddaughter of Emperor Isaac II Angelo and the granddaughter of King Baldwin of Jerusalem Second) and according to her mother, she belonged to the Royal Empire and the Royal Alliance with the Emperor of the Empire from the Kings. of Sicily, Queen Helen of Anjou connected Eastern and Western traditions with her very existence, and it is not surprising that her work is in that spirit. The cult of St. of King Milutin in Bulgaria and the recent celebration of the 800th anniversary of the death of this saint, the younger son of Helen of Anjou, was also mentioned in the context of the heritage and legacy of the kingdom. In the discussion. Dr Erdeljan also referred to the issue of identity in a foreign environment, given that she herself grew up in the diaspora, as well as the role of identity in the lives of today’s generations of teaching students with whom she meets them in the seminars or on her programme through engagement at the Faculty of Philosophy.
Dr Rastko Jović began his lecture with a question about the saint, actually, why is Helena of Anjou a saint and what she did do to become a saint today. The merging of Eastern and Western traditions at the time of Helen of Anjou, in the 13th century, was not as problematic as it is today, announced Dr Jović, considering that today they are mutually exclusive, and at that time they were not
Dr Jović gave the answer in interpreting the works of Queen Helen of Anjou by saying that she “manifested the future in the present” and by doing what constituted a way of life with which the unity of the cross in the community was baptized and contained in the community. churches and monasteries (both Orthodox and Catholic), organized schools for girls and maintained contacts with church dignitaries (from both churches) and rulers from the surrounding states, but also during the time when she herself was the ruler of a part of Zeta.
Helen of Anjou drew her identity from Christ and not from the people from which she came, nor from the people in which she was baptized, and through her work, she multiplied and did not “bury” them by giving them away (may the Lord give them away). and today, each of us), and that is the most important thing that Dr Jović underlined in his presentation, talking about the sanctity of Queen Helen.
After the presentation, the conversation continued about the controversial parts of the life of Queen Helen, about her conversion to Orthodoxy, the monastic name “Elisaveta”, which is mentioned in some historical sources of the person, but also about the identity of today’s issue.
Given that some of the participants were from the diaspora, specifically from Malta, the discussion started in the direction of the topic of preserving identity in a foreign environment. In this part, the issue of dialogue with the Other and different, “guarding” from the dangers of such communication, but also about whether the identity should be drawn from the people, that is, the nation, from which it originates, or from Christ, was imposed. in the words of Dr Jović, Helen of Anjou did exactly that and showed by her own example that her goal was to “invest” in the future and not in the presence of that time. Today’s generations also enjoy her “investments” and have the opportunity to learn about them.
At the very end of the meeting, the parish priest of Malta, Father Risto Gorančić, first expressed his joy for the gathering and greeted the lecturers and all present, and then gave his contribution to the topic of preserving identity in a foreign environment, in which he lives and is starting to happen. not using/neglecting the mother tongue, what is happening in the diaspora and all communities, not only in the Serbian one, and that it is extremely important to have the health of the church community and the community. Helena of Anjou, the Circle of Serbian Sisters or other youth organizations that nurture ties with the common, mother, tradition. In this context, Father Risto also mentioned the Serbian Language School, which in cooperation with the parish of St. Apostle Paul and St. Nicholas in Malta, and with the support of the Diaspora Administration and Serbia in the region, SECC Helena of Anjou, through whom our youngest members of the community are in contact with Serbia and the Serbian language, and over time they work to preserve their own identity.
In the closing words, the moderator underlined the importance of “manifesting the future in the present” and the baptism of identity from Christ, investing in the future of the school through education, as the state made the decision of the union of states and allies of the union of states of unofficialness. dialogue with the Other and different, especially in the diaspora because “everywhere is the Lord’s land”.