Damian of Grahovo | |
| Birth Date: | Damjan Štrbac 19 February 1912 |
| Birth Place: | Plavno, near Knin |
| Death Place: | Jadovno, Independent State of Croatia |
| Venerated In: | Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Canonized Date: | 20 May 2003 |
| Canonized By: | the Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church |
Damjan Štrbac (sr|Дамјан Штрбац, 19 February 1912 – 17 July 1941) was a Serbian Orthodox priest and martyr. He was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church as Saint Damian of Grahovo .[1]
Štrbac was born in Plavno near Knin.He finished seminary in Cetinje in 1932. He was ordained a deacon on 17 Marchand a priest on 18 March 1934 in Šibenik.
He served in Žegar and then in Bosansko Grahovo when the Second World War started.
At the end of May 1941, the Italian army withdrew from Grahovo and its surroundings, and was replaced by an Ustaše unit, who immediately proceeded on 14 June 1941 to arrest citizens from the place and the surrounding area. Among them, Štrbac was arrested. He spent almost twenty days in the prison of the District Court in Bosansko Grahovo, and after that he was taken to Knin, and then to Gospić, where he was held as a detainee with the identification number of 577. He was taken from the camp to the Jadovno concentration camp and where he was skinned alive by the Ustaše guards and then thrown into a pit.
At the regular session of the Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 20 May 2003, at the suggestion of Bishop Chrysostom of Bihać-Petrovac, he was included in the Council of Holy Hieromartyrs of the Church of God.
His memorial is celebrated on 31 May.