After 18 months of restoration, the four Cajnice Gospels were returned from Belgrade to the Church of the Holy Mother of God, where the Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosnia presented an order of the Golden Cross of Saint Peter of Sarajevo, to those responsible for the restoration.

The removal of this national treasure from Bosnia and Herzegovina caused the indignation of part of the public and some members of the Commission for the Preservation of National Monuments.

The Metropolitan pointed out that today is a special day for the people of Cajnice and for the entire Serbian people.

“Material things are subject to decay and it is necessary to work on the protection of both churches and monasteries, as well as the sacred things stored in them. We are also in the phase of rebuilding this temple, and the first thing we did in the post-war period here in Cajnice was the restoration and protection of the icon of the Virgin,” Bishop Hrizstom recalled.

Today, Bishop Hrizostom awarded the acting director of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity Secretariat for Religions, Dragan Davidovic, the director of the Archives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Radovan Pilipovic, and the priest Dragisa Simic, who are responsible for the organization of the restoration and protection of the Gospel, with the golden order of Saint Peter of Sarajevo.

The Cajnice Gospel is the only medieval manuscript book from the old state of Bosnia, which has been preserved in Bosnia and Herzegovina to this day.

According to the peculiarities of the language, the Gospel is dated to the early 15th century, and it was created on the soil of eastern Bosnia. It is kept in Cajnice and is the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The restoration of the Gospel took 18 months.