Rafailo Momčilović

Rafailo Momčilović (Kovilj, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 23 April 1875 - Pozega, Independent State of Croatia, 3 September 1941) was a Serbian cleric and painter who was tortured in the Second World War in the hands of the Ustasha at Pozega.  His burial site has yet to be found.  Today the Serbian Orthodox Church venerates him as a martyr and saint on 3 September.  

Persecution of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia began almost immediately after the invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany.  Ustasha units, administrative commissars and Ustasha youth took up residence in all Serbian Orthodox monasteries throughout Greater Croatia.  The monks who had the opportunity to flee, most often fled to either Serbia (from Croatia) or to Montenegro (from Dalmatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina), and those who were caught were sent to internment camps at Jasenovac or killed on the way.  Among many others, the Prior of Šišatovac Monastery, artist Rafailo Momčilović, was killed along the way. 

Legacy
The icons of the iconostasis of Ružica Church in Belgrade were painted by Rafailo Momčilović, who had gained his iconographic skills from Russian iconographers.  It is significant to mention that Rafailo donated all his gain to the building of Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade, the work of which had started before World War II.  Also, he painted the icons of the iconostasis in the Orthodox church of Gornji Kovilj. 

There is an art colony in Vojvodina named after him. 

See also
 List of Serbian saints
 List of painters from Serbia

References 

Category:1875 births
Category:1941 deaths
Category:People from South Bačka District
Category:Serbian saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church
Category:20th-century Serbian painters
Category:People from Požega, Serbia
Category:Serb people who died in the Holocaust