The New Martyrs of Piva are the Orthodox Christian inhabitants of the Piva region, in present-day Montenegro near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were killed by Axis forces in June 1943. Many of the victims were children. The killings are associated above all with the Doli Pivski massacre, carried out during the Second World War, and the dead are commemorated collectively as martyrs.
The Serbian Orthodox Church proclaimed the victims to be martyrs in 2017 and established their commemoration on May 25 (June 7 on the civil calendar). Among the named figures venerated within the group is a girl who, according to the recorded account, ran into a burning house in order to die alongside her family; she is commemorated as the Holy Martyr Jaglika Pivska.
Timeline 4 moments
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7 June 1943The Doli Pivski massacreAt the village of Doli Pivski in Montenegro, near the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, together with Croatian Ustaše forces, killed 522 Serb civilians, of whom 109 were children. The victims, gathered from surrounding villages and the wider Piva area, were shot or burned alive in houses. The killings took place during Operation Schwarz, a joint Axis operation against the Yugoslav Partisans.
June 1943Killings across the Piva regionThe Doli Pivski massacre formed part of a wider series of killings in the Piva region during June 1943. Victims were rounded up from villages including Dub, Bukovac, Miljkovac, Duba, and Rudinci. A large proportion of the dead were children and young people.
1977 and 2004MemorializationA memorial site commemorating the victims was constructed in 1977, and an Orthodox church was later built on the site in 2004. Dola village, as the largest execution place in the area, became a central place of remembrance for the Piva martyrs.
2017Glorification by the Serbian Orthodox ChurchThe Serbian Orthodox Church proclaimed the victims of the massacre to be martyrs in 2017, establishing their commemoration on May 25 (June 7). The young martyr who entered a burning house to die with her family received the title Holy Martyr Jaglika Pivska.
Contributions & Legacy
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The massacre
The Doli Pivski massacre took place on 7 June 1943 at the village of Doli Pivski in Montenegro. Its perpetrators were the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen and Croatian Ustaše forces, operating during the Axis Operation Schwarz against the Yugoslav Partisans. The civilians killed were gathered from villages of the Piva region, and the recorded death toll is 522 Serb civilians, including 109 children, who were shot or burned alive in houses.
The accounts preserved of the massacre dwell on the scale of the killing of children: in one sinkhole, 107 children and a woman who was giving birth at the time were reported to have been killed within a single minute. These killings are remembered as part of the wider toll of the Piva region in June 1943.
Veneration
The Serbian Orthodox Church glorified the victims as the New Martyrs of Piva in 2017, with their feast kept on May 25 (June 7). Within the collective commemoration, individual figures such as Jaglika Pivska are named and venerated. Jaglika of Piva (Jaglika Adžić) is recorded with a feast of 28 July (15 July, Old Style) among the named New Martyrs of the Piva massacre.
Their companions & kin
A young martyr venerated among the New Martyrs of Piva, who entered a burning house to die with her family.
Martyr Jaglika Pivska
Notes
Killed June 1943 (Montenegro). Glorified by the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2017; feast set at May 25 / June 7.
