Mosaics come together over years of fish fries (Milwaukee Serbian church)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ^ | May 29, 2004 | TOM HEINEN

[joan]

Surrounded by some of the most extensive and elaborate church mosaics in the United States, parochial school children and adults blended their prayerful voices with rising incense smoke below a towering image of Christ at the miracle of loaves and fishes.

The scene during last week's celebration of the Feast of the Ascension was coincidental but symbolic.

After more than $3 million and nearly 35 years of gradual fund raising and installation, final touches were made this month on the countless Italian-glass mosaics that cover virtually every inch of the walls, ceiling and dome in Milwaukee's St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral.

And, in a sense, the project could be called the amazing multiplication of fish fries and ustipci, or Serbian drop doughnuts.

Thousands of people, from U.S. presidents to everyday folks throughout the Milwaukee area, have eaten the popular Friday sit-down or Wednesday carryout fish dinners at nearby American Serb Memorial Hall, 5101 W. Oklahoma Ave. Others have gathered there to bowl or for wedding receptions, funeral lunches, union meetings, political rallies and other events.

But St. Sava can be somewhat inconspicuous, across a large parking lot and around the corner at 3201 S. 51st St. Many diners probably never knew that the hall's proceeds went to the parish to help pay for the construction of the cathedral, the mosaics and many other expenses. Serb Hall was built by the church in memory of local Serbian Americans killed in the line of duty in the U.S. armed forces. It is run by a separate corporation whose board members are cathedral members, said Bob Milkovich, the hall's general manager.

"Every president since Eisenhower has been at Serb Hall except George W., and we're working on that," said Milkovich, a past president of St. Sava's church board. "We're the largest fish fry in the country. People have asked me, 'How many fish do you sell?' I would say in excess of about 50 tons per year."

Doughnut lady's love

A hundred yards or so west of St. Sava lives a pillar of the church, Kata Basarich, 93, who emigrated from Slavonia in 1925. She looked at the cathedral through the kitchen window in her parish-owned house Thursday, clasped her hands, and exclaimed, "This is my everything!" For more than 30 years she was the cathedral's doughnut lady, until she gave that up about five years ago. As a member of The Circle of Serbian Sisters, she made the deep-fried delicacies to sell at the parish's Serbian Days festival, picnics, Easter bake sales, Milwaukee's Holiday Folk Fair, and Serb Hall bingo games.

Marcia Jovanovich, the parish secretary, conservatively estimated that Basarich made more than 100,000 doughnuts "and she did it all with such love."

Plus, Basarich quickly pointed out, a generous splash of brandy in the dough.

Some money raised by the doughnut sales went toward the mosaics as part of the larger fund-raising effort by the women's group. It and The Loyal Order of St. Sava were among about 20 groups that helped. Families and individual parishioners made small and large contributions, some as memorials, with no donations coming from outside the Serbian community, said Father Dragan Veleusic, dean of the cathedral.

The congregation was founded in 1912 by Serbian immigrants. Serb Hall was completed in 1950. The cathedral, a city landmark, was completed in 1957-'58. But its interior mosaics were not started until 1969, Veleusic said.

Since the mid-1990s, war and ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia have brought at least 250 new ethnic Serbian families to the parish and its school, helping to keep traditions alive. There now are about 1,100 families on the parish mailing list.

Few such church-wall mosaics

Paul Jakubovich, preservation planner for the City of Milwaukee Development Center, said few churches built in the U.S. since World War II rival the Serbian-influenced, Byzantine Revival cathedral's splendor and craftsmanship.

It is traditional for Orthodox church interiors to be extensively decorated with mosaics or frescoes, but churches such as St. Sava are exceptional in the U.S., said Slobodan Curcic, professor of art and archaeology at Princeton University.

"There are not too many others," Curcic said. "These projects take a long time and a lot of money."

Veleusic knows of one other Serbian Orthodox church in the U.S. with an interior completely covered with mosaics, St. George in San Diego.

Even in the former Yugoslavia, there are relatively few surviving examples of church-wall mosaics from Byzantine times, and none known to have been commissioned by Serbian rulers, Curcic said. Rioting by ethnic Albanians is threatening some of the most important Serbian church frescoes in Kosovo, he added.

St. Sava's mosaics all were designed by Italian-born artist Sirio Tonelli, were made in Italy, and use about 2,000 colors and tones, Veleusic said. They follow Byzantine tradition, depicting Christ, Mary, prophets, angels, Old and New Testament scenes, apostles, and Serbian saints and kings in a hierarchical order from the dome, or heaven, down to Earth.

Tonelli visited churches and monasteries in the former Yugoslavia. Many of St. Sava's mosaics were modeled after those in the Church of St. George in Oplenac, near Topola, Serbia, which was built in the 1900s, Veleusic said.

In the days when people were illiterate, scenes depicted in mosaics and frescoes were a vital reminder of Bible stories, Veleusic said. They still inspire and assure people that Christ watches over them along with the angels and saints.

Most mosaic work was finished last November, but a small portion in the vestibule fell down and was repaired this month. Veleusic expects to have a celebration and final blessing later this year.

[joan]

Photo/David Joles
Father Radomir Cutilo speaks with a parishioner Thursday before the start of the divine liturgy marking the Feast of the Ascension at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Milwaukee. Many diners around the corner at Serb Hall probably never knew that the hall's fish fry proceeds went to the parish to help pay for the construction of the cathedral.

Photo/David Joles
Glass mosaics cover virtually every inch of the cathedral walls, ceiling and dome. Italian-born artist Sirio Tonelli designed the mosaics, which use about 2,000 colors and tones.

[joan]

ping

[VOA]

I'm from an austere branch of the Protestants...but I've got to say those are some
mighty fine mosaics!

[MadelineZapeezda]

Thanks, joan for posting this. Saint Sava's is truly beautiful and I believed already registered as a historic designation, as it deserves to be.

There was actually a Jeopardy question as to who serves more fish out of the drive-in window with either mcDonalds, long john's silver and St. Sava's as the answer, which of course was the correct answer!

W ought to get his butt up there.

[jocon307]

The church looks beautiful. The deep blue is fabulous. I love mosaics.

The Roman Catholic church where my daughter made her first communion has a lot of mosaics, very unusual. Not so wonderful as these, but they do have a wonderous, luminous effect. She scolded me once for admiring the church and missing the part where she answered a question at some little ceremony they had. Bad mommy!

It is St. John's in Jersey City, NJ, right in Journal Square, if any afficianados care to know.

[MadelineZapeezda]

Ping!
First time there was in 1963 at my uncle's wedding.

Mnogaja ljeta! May God Grant Them Many Years!

[mountaineer]

Wow, what an impressive sight.

BTW, MZ, I'm scheduled to have a story in tomorrow's N-R regarding Mr. M's Serbian cousins (of his maternal grandfather Tepsic) and my grandfather who fought in WWI. We returned from France two weeks ago.

[joan]

Many of St. Sava's mosaics were modeled after those in the Church of St. George in Oplenac, near Topola, Serbia, which was built in the 1900s, Veleusic said.

[glock rocks]

Just beautiful.

[Catspaw]

I haven't been in St. Sava's in decades, but after looking at those pictures, I can almost smell the incense.

And I so miss those fish fries at Serb Hall.

I can't believe President Bush has never been there. Hope he gets to Serb Hall this campaign.

[MadelineZapeezda]

I had the opportunity to visit there as well. As a matter of fact it was in 1969, the day in which we landed on the moon, that my Mom and I visited Oplenac. Everyone was watching the tvs in the windows of the stores in downtown Belgrade. You brought a fond memory back for me!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

*****To: joan
The church looks beautiful. The deep blue is fabulous. I love mosaics. ******

Enjoy it while you can! If the moslems take over they will be either blown up or white washed over to make it into a mosque. Remember what happened to the churches of Anatolia when the Turks over ran the area!

[jocon307]

"Enjoy it while you can! If the moslems take over..."

Ruy, I am just a skinny old 45 year old female, but I will give my utmost to ensure that the muslims never take over!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Ruy, I am just a skinny old 45 year old female, but I will give my utmost to ensure that the muslims never take over!***

I hope ther are more of you! My computer wallpaper is a nice icon of Jesus. I find such mosaics beautiful!

[MarMema]

pinging you to some older threads...