My Parish Church

My name is Dušan Medić and I am from Bečej. Bečej is the city that
belongs to the diocese of Bačka. My parish church is dedicated to St. George
the Martyr.
The church is one of most beautiful churches in Serbia. It was built in the
style of late classicism, while the three towers, a symbol of the Holy Trinity,
were built in baroque style. In 1848th the original church was destroyed.
Construction of the church began in 1851. and it was completed in September,
in 1858. The building is a single-nave structure with a pentagonal apse and two
chanters' desk.
The iconostasis of the Church was made in the baroque style. The icons
were painted bu most famous icon-painter Uroš Predić since 1889. until 1893.
year. It is interesting to note that, before the iconostasis was installed, the artist
organized an exhibition and it was the first exhibition in Bečej. Most of the
icons were painted by inspiration of real persons of that time. There is a story
that lady, who was inspiration for the painting of Holy Theotokos, asked Uroš
to do some changes to the painting, because she tought that she was not worthy
of that. He fullfiled her desire and made changes to the nose so it looked more
like a jewish nose.
Uroš Predić himselfh restored iconostasis since 1930. until 1931. year. In
1972nd the church was restored again.
Our town Slava is also St. George the Martyr, and it is celebrated each
6th of May (23rd of April, according to Old Style calendar). We celebrate this
feast, in the morning with Holy Liturgy and later afternoon in front of church
with slava cake and apropriate artistic program. A lot of people gather
downtown to celebrate this feast and pray to our Patron Saint to represent us to
the Lord.