April

68 | / Neobi~ni ~uvari Hristovog groba UNUSUAL GUARDIANS OF CHRIST’S GRAVE The guardians of Christ’s tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem are not an unusual phenomenon, especially when one considers the centuries of con ict between representatives of the three great monotheistic religions that traditionally claim rights to this ancient city. However, when the Guardians of Christ’s tomb appear hundreds of kilometres to the north, in the Dalmatian town of Vrlika, and when written sources and oral tradition recognises them as a tradition dating back at least four centuries, then countless questions and perplexities arise. Orthodox Serbs fromVrlika, or the Vrlička Frontier – extending between Dinara and Sinj near Knin, dressed in lavish clothing and armed with traditional relocks, yataghan knives and replicas of wooden ri es, have been appearing on Good Friday since 1395 with a socalled Epitaphios – an exceptionally ne piece of cloth, most commonly silk, on which a weaving technique has been used to embroider the image of Christ in the tomb. The most famous such epitaphios, which forms a key part of the Easter worship, is certainly that of king Milutin Nemanjić (1282-1321), created at the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th, which is today preserved at the Museumof the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade. However, the youngman fromVrlika guarded their epitaphios for centuries during Easter in the Church of St Nicholas inVrlika, only for the exodus of Serbs from Croatia in 1995 to result in this unusual tradition being transferred to the town of Batajnica near Belgrade. Researchers of this unique formof intangible cultural heritage assume that some prominent medieval pilgrimbrought back from Jerusalema story about the guardians of the Christ’s tomb there, which led to it being accepted among the Serbs of the time, andwith the advancement of the Ottomans and the emergence of theMilitary Frontier in the 16th century, withinwhichVrlika found itself, the tradition actually gained special meaning in the context of the defence of Christianity against advancing Islam. The HolyTomb in Jerusalemhas been guarded by twoMuslim families for centuries, one of which is taskedwith turning a key that’s several hundred years old, while the other is to open the doors to the thousands of pilgrims. HRISTOV GROB / THE TOMB OF CHRIST Čuvari Hristovog groba u Crkvi Svetog groba u Jerusalimu nisu neobična pojava, pogotovo kada se imaju u vidu vekovni sukobi među predstavnicima triju velikih monoteističkih religija, koje tradicionalno polažu prava na taj drevni grad. Međutim, kada se Čuvari Hristovog groba pojave mnogo stotina kilometara severnije, u selu Vrlika u Dalmaciji, a pritom ih i pisani izvori i usmeno predanje prepoznaju kao tradiciju dugu najmanje četiri veka, onda se postavi sijaset pitanja i nedoumica. Pravoslavni Srbi iz Vrlike, odnosno Vrličke Krajine – potez između Dinare i Svilaje, nadomak Knina, obučeni u raskošnu odeću i naoružani tradicionalnim kuburama, jataganima i replikama drvenih pušaka, pristupaju još od 1395. godine na Veliki petak takozvanoj plaštanici – izuzetno finom komadu najčešće svilene tkanine na kojoj je u tehnici veza saobražen Hrist u grobu. Najpoznatija takva plaštanica, koja čini ključni deo uskršnjeg bogosluženja, svakako je ona kralja Milutina Nemanjića (1282–1321), nastala krajem 13, odnosno početkom 14. veka, koja se danas čuva u Muzeju Srpske pravoslavne crkve u Beogradu. Međutim, vrlički momci su svoju plaštanicu čuvali vekovima tokomUskrsa u Crkvi Svetog Nikole u Vrlici, a da bi nakon egzodusa Srba iz Hrvatske, 1995. godine, tu nesvakidašnju tradiciju preneli u Batajnicu kod Beograda. Istraživači ovog jedinstvenog oblika nematerijalnog kulturnog nasleđa pretpostavljaju da je neki ugledni srednjovekovni hodočasnik iz Jerusalima doneo priču o tamošnjim čuvarima Hristovog groba, pa da je prihvaćena među ondašnjim Srbima, a da bi napredovanjemOsmanlija i nastankomVojne granice u 16. veku, na čijem prostoru se našla i Vrlika, zapravo dobila poseban smisao u kontekstu odbrane hrišćanstva pred napredujućim islamom. Sveti grob u Jerusalimu, tačnije Crkvu Svetog groba, čuvaju već vekovima dve muslimanske porodice, od kojih jedna ima zadatak da okrene nekoliko stotina godina star ključ, a druga da otvori vrata hiljadama hodočasnika koji ovamo hrle svakog Uskrsa.

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