Life in Harmony With Typicon For more than a year and a half, the largest female monastery in Kosovo and Metohija has also been home to Serb refugees expelled from other parts of Kosovo and Metohija, mostly from Prizren. Some of them work in the newly opened Radio KiM in Caglavica, others as translators in non-governmental and humanitarian organizations. The bell summons them to morning worship service, which during the winter is held in the monastery chapel instead of the church due to cold weather. It is served by the Gracanica priests, by newly ordained priests serving their apprenticeship in Gracanica, and on holidays by the bishop. The bell is heard again at five minutes to five o'clock with a call to evening service which lasts about one and a half hours.
Supper is at seven o'clock after which the nuns withdraw to their cells for free time.
On holidays slightly less stringent rules are in effect. Both the typicon and prayer duties for each of the 25 nuns in Gracanica are set by the spiritual father, Bishop Artemije, while the prioress as their spiritual mother is concerned with their duties and everyday life. The first, most basic and most important rule in the monastery, one of the nuns explains, is that nothing can be done without the blessing of either the prioress or spiritual father. Trips out of the monastery are allowed only with the permission of the bishop or with the blessing of the prioress to make purchases to meet the needs of the sisterhood. The reading of newspapers and fiction also requires the blessing of the spiritual father, which is received individually, and the same is true for all contacts by the sisters with outside persons, especially for conversations with reporters.