Lepavina Monastery

The Lepavina Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Presentation of Mary and located on the village of Sokolovac, close to the city of Koprivnica in Croatia. According to an antique nearby chronicle, the Lepavina monastery was based round 1550, very quickly after the emergence of the first Serbian settlements on this area.

A monk from the Hilandar Monastery Jefrem, Vukodabovic, born in Herzegovina, together with two clergymen from Bosnia, built a wood church here. They have been quickly joined by several other clergymen and the group, in keeping with the chronicle, obtained the reputation of a monastery. After the conflict, the simplest inhabitant of the monastery become Father Simeon, who in part renovated it and back the usurped property. By the efforts of Metropolitan Jovan of Zagreb and Ljubljana, who became the top of the diocese in 1977, the monastery regained the antique glory and significance. The connection with the Hilandar Monastery was revived in 1984, while monk Gavrilo got here from there and became Lepavina’s hegumen and ultimately archimandrite.