yugoslavias implosion

194
ChApter 3
possibility of using St. Vitus’ Day to abuse the Kosovo myth was
pointed out in the 1970s by Miodrag Popović, who wrote:
The cult of St. Vitus’ Day, which confuses historical and mythical
reality, a genuine struggle for freedom and enduring pagan propensities
(revenge, throat-slitting, oblation, worship of a heroic ancestor),
contains potentially all the characteristics of environments
marked by unbridled mythical impulses. As a phase in the development
of national thought, it was historically necessary. But as a permanent
state of the spirit, the cult of St. Vitus’ Day can prove detrimental for
those who are unable to disentangle themselves from its pseudo-mythical
and pseudo-historical entanglements. In them, modern thought and
man’s spirit may experience a new Kosovo, an intellectual and ethical
defeat. 310
As early as 1980, the Kosovo myth was skilfully exploited by
the Serbian Orthodox Church (spc) with the goal of the political
homogenization of the Serbian people. Use of the legend transferred
“the conflict from the sphere of politics, economy, and history to
the extra-temporal sphere of myth.” 311 In the political vacuum after
Tito’s death, the spc presented itself as the guarantor of traditional
national security and the focal point of communal life. In 1982, twenty-one
priests signed an appeal to the highest Serbian and Yugoslav
authorities, as well as to the spc Assembly and the Holy Bishopric
Synod, to “raise their voice in the protection of the spiritual and biological
being of the Serb people in Kosovo and Metohija.” 312 Documents
edited by prominent historians on old crimes and terror
committed against Serbs were published in ever-growing numbers.
In an official announcement in 1987, the spc Assembly used the term
310 Miodrag Popović, Vidovdan i časni krst, ogled iz književne arheologije (St . Vitus’ Day and
the Holy Cross, an essay on literary archaeology), Belgrade, 1976, pp . 131–32 .
311 Ibid.
312 Pravoslavlje, May 15, 1982 .