The Blessing of St. Michael’s Statue in Pločice

The most important thing is to leave a legacy for our children, to know who their ancestors were.

Konavle, 18th September 2025. Parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Plocice. Dubrovnik Bishop Roko Glasnovic blessed the monumental statue of St. Michael the Archangel. The statue is a gift, erected on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the establishment of the Croatian Kingship.

In May, the statue of Saint Michael the Archangel arrived in Pločice, major preparations began, and finally the day arrived – the day of blessing.

The monumental statue of Saint Michael the Archangel was blessed by Dubrovnik Bishop Roko Glasnović, who addressed the assembled people with selected words, including the following:

– In the Šibenik Cathedral stands a beautiful statue of Saint Michael of inestimable value, who pierced the dragon, Satan, with a spear. When they were restoring it, they said, ‘You can remove Michael from the cathedral, but you can’t remove the devil.’ He is the rock that holds, and so it is in our lives, we don’t appreciate good things, we quickly and easily remove them, and we are more preoccupied with the dark chronicle and the negative. We fall more easily under the influence of evil and wickedness than the good that someone has done for us. The same goes for words, when someone hurts you and says something unkind, it hurts us, but we forget that they said ‘I love you’ to us a hundred times. How many bad things do we remember and forget the good ones – the bishop pointed out during the blessing, adding that angels are mentioned over 400 times in the Holy Scripture.

– We read in the Book of Revelation about the heavenly war, Michael against the dragon and Michael wins. This war is not only cosmic but deeply personal. We know our battles. There are spiritual deserts, poverty, hunger, thirst, loss of love and ignorance of God. The deserts of the heart expand indefinitely, and from them the external desolations of the world sprout and then we wonder why everything happens. If we move away from God, then even man will not fare well – said Bishop Roko Glasnović.

Miljenko Jurić from the civic movement Marijini ratnici also addressed the gathered people of Konavle.

– We made an initiative for four statues, and by God’s providence, 14 such statues were created from four, some of which will also protect the people of our beautiful Bosnia and Herzegovina – said Jurić and thanked the bishop for coming and blessing.

– Why Pločice? We had the idea to place the statue on Prevlaka as the end point of Croatia, however, due to conservation rules, the decision was made to place it in Pločice. I am very happy about that because at the age of 19 I was in these fields and protected our homeland. May Saint Michael protect you and give you strength to continue, to persevere in your faith. The most important thing is that it be a legacy for our children, that they know who their ancestors were, because we did not do this for ourselves, but for our generations – added Miljenko Jurić.

– Four statues have been installed, the last dedication in Pokupskome will be on October 5th. Seven more statues will arrive on October 15th, and three are in the final stages of processing. We have financially completed the entire construction thanks to donors – he said in a statement for Dubrovački vjesnik.

The parish priest of this parish, Don Tihomir Šakota, is popular with the people, and this was best seen when we were in Pločice in May, where about 20 locals from the village and surrounding towns came to help him with the work. They then built a small square and a pedestal for the statue of St. Michael, all of them, with joint efforts, and a small children’s playground. They poured concrete, carried it, and pulled it. Tired of their jobs from which they had arrived directly in Pločice, they rolled up their sleeves and mixed the cement.

These are people who still help each other from the bottom of their hearts, where they don’t have to ask who to call to pour a concrete slab because they have been taught to be there for neighbors and friends. Proof of this is the blessed statue of Saint Michael the Archangel, which rises from today on the square near the road, right behind the sign “Pločice”.

The statue of Archangel Michael weighs 4 tons and is almost 4 meters high. It was made of marble by a Catholic Chinese stonemason, and the statue traveled all the way from China to the far south of Croatia. The Miloš, Matea and Martin family with twenty-month-old Michael were photographed next to his feet.

The original plan was to acquire four such statues and place them on the four sides of Croatia – in Pločice, Pazin, Pokupsko and Šarengrad. However, since this is the year in which the 1100th anniversary of the Croatian kingdom is celebrated, it was decided to acquire as many as 14 of them, some of which will also be placed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Donations were collected by the Filip Neri Volunteer Association from Split, and the project was coordinated by laypeople and priests.

The parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Pločice is the oldest parish in Konavle after Cavtat, and has changed borders several times throughout its history. Initially, it covered two-thirds of Konavle, the Dubrovnik Diocese reminds us on its website. The parish includes eleven villages and has eleven cemeteries. Next to the parish church in Pločice is a cemetery with 18 graves from 1892, which is no longer in use. Interestingly, the unfinished bell tower is located next to the parish house, not the church.

Source in Croatian.