The organizers of the Paris Olympic Games have demonstrated to the world their contempt for the traditional European culture by launching an opening ceremony ignominiously ridiculing the biblical Last Supper. Albeit organizers denied the association between the opening ceremony’s scene and Da Vinci’s painting The Last Supper,‘millions of people around the world recognized the resemblance’. Despite the Olympics being hell-bent on promoting gender ideology, not the athletes agreed to go along. In brave defiance of the mainstream trend, Serbian tennis superstar Novak Djokovic chose to bravely display his Serbian Orthodox faith.
One of the most decorated male tennis players in the history of the game, 37-year-old Serbian Novak Djokovic has been on a gold-winning spree for the last couple of years. Be it the Australian Open, Wimbledon or any other major tennis tournament, he has always performed exceptionally well. Djokovic has always highlighted the fact that
the source of his unyielding determination is his Christian faith, which always gives him strength to overcome the hardest challenges on the court.
Now he has continued his ascendence to the annals of tennis history after he won the gold for Serbia after winning the match against the Spanish athlete Carlos Alcaraz.
In the context of the current Olympics Djokovic’s openness about his religious convictions stands out even more than usual. Due to the controversy surrounding the Olympics, many have speculated that Novak Djokovic’s most recent references to his Christian faith were done as a rebellion against the opening performance’s indecency. Regardless of whether Djokovic did so intentionally or not, he has nonetheless garnered public acclaim for having strong beliefs and for the adherence to his principles.
Many have noticed that after his victory Djokovic, who is an Orthodox Christian, crossed himself rather differently than how Western Christians do it. The practice of making a sign of the cross across one’s body can be traced to the dawn of Christianity itself. By the fourth century AD, this had already become an important marking of those who adhered to the Christian faith. Over the centuries, however, the practise of making the sign of cross started to differ between Catholic and Orthodox Christians. The most notable difference is that Orthodox Christians to make the sign of the cross from right to left, rather than from left to right as Catholic Christians do. In addition, differently from Catholics, Orthodox Christians make the sign of the cross by holding their hand with the index, middle fingers and thumb together. In the Orthodox rite these three fingers represent the Holy Trinity—Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The remaining two fingers symbolize the two natures of Jesus Christ—human and divine. No doubt, Djokovic had a lot to celebrate and thank God in Paris. He is one of the few tennis players to have completed a ‘Golden Slam’, that is, to win four major annual tournaments and an Olympic gold medal.
But Djokovic was awarded many times during his career not only for his sports achievements, but also for his intransigent public acknowledgment of his Christian faith. Already in 2011
he was awarded the Serbian Orthodox Church’s high honour, the Order of St Sava, for his ‘active love towards Mother Church,
particularly in showing fervent and persistent support of the Serbian people and the sanctuaries of our Holy Church’. Reacting to the award, the decorated tennis player said: ‘This award is certainly the most important I’ve ever got.’ A year later the Russian Orthodox Church also awarded him for ‘Outstanding Activity in Strengthening Unity of Orthodox Christian Nations and for Consolidation and Promotion of Christian Values in the Life of Society’.
Djokovic is also known for his generous donations supporting the education of underprivileged Serb children, Serbian public health care. In 2017 he even opened a restaurant in Serbia providing free food to the homeless. He is also known to have contributed financially to the renovation of churches in Serbia, Kosovo and France.
The Orthodox community’s support, respect and love for Djokovic became apparent during one of the hardest times in the athlete’s career. During the COVID-19 crisis Djokovic was vocal about opposing some of the measures taken during the pandemic. He opposed vaccinations mandates, clarifying that he ‘was never against vaccination’ ‘but…always supported the freedom to choose what you put in your body’. Due to being unvaccinated, he was briefly detain in Australia before the 2022 Australian Open and was later deported from the country; he could not participate in sports events in America in the same year either. His detention in Australia happened to occur during the Orthodox Christmas, and Australia even refused to allow him to see a priest during the Orthodox holiday. In solidarity with the detained athlete both Orthodox Serbs and Australians organized prayer services for Djokovic.
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