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[[Image:StJustinPopovich.jpg|thumb|right|Archimandrite Justin Popovich (1894-1979)]]
The Archimandrite '''Justin Popović''' (in Cyrillic Serbian, Ју�?тин Јустин Поповић) (1894-1979) was a [[theologian]], a champion, a writer, a critic of the pragmatic church life, a philosopher, and [[archimandrite]] of the [[Monastery]] Ćelije, near Valjevo.
==Life==
Archimandrite Justin was born to pious and God-fearing parents, [[Protopresbyter|Proto]] Spyridon and [[presbytera|Protinica]] Anastasia Popović, in Vranje, South Serbia, on the [[Annunciation|Feast of Annunciation]], [[March 25]], 1894 (April 7 by the [[New Calendar]]). At [[baptism]], he was given the name ''Blagoje'', after the Feast of the Annunciation (''Blagovest'' means ''Annunciation'' or ''Good News''). He was born into a priestly family, as seven previous generations of the Popovices (Popović in Serbian actually means "family or a son of a [[priest]]") were headed by priests.
Blagoje Popović completed the nine-years' studies at the Theological Faculty St. Sava in Belgrade in 1914. In the early twentieth century the School of St. Sava in Belgrade was renowned throughout the Orthodox world as a holy place of extreme [[asceticism]] as well as of a high quality of scholarship. Some of the well-known professors included the [[rector]], Fr. Domentian; Professor Fr. Dositheus[[Dositej of Zagreb|Dositej]], later a [[bishopmartyr]]; and Athanas Dr. Atanasije Popović; and the great ecclesiastical composer, Stevan Mokranjac. Yet one professor stood head and shoulders above the rest: the then [[Hieromonk]] [[Nikolai Velimirovic|Nikolai Velimirović]], Ph.D., the single most influential person in Fr. Justin's life.
During the early part of World War I, in autumn of 1914, Blagoje served as a student nurse primarily in South Serbia—Skadar, Niš, Kosovo, etc. Unfortunately, while in this capacity, he contracted typhus during the winter of 1914 and had to spend over a month in a hospital in Niš. On [[January 8]], 1915, he resumed his duties sharing the destiny of the Serbian army, he passed a path of Golgotha from Peć to Skadar (along which 100,000 Serbian soldiers died) where on [[January 1]], 1916, he entered the [[monasticism|monastic order]] in the Orthodox [[cathedral]] of Skadar, and took the name of St. Justin, after the great Christian philosopher and [[martyr]] for Christ, St. [[Justin Martyr|Justin the Philosopher]].