A Meeting Between Saint Nikolai Velimirovich and Nikola Tesla

In his lifetime, Saint Nikolai Velimirovich visited the USA four times. He visited Britain in 1910. He studied English and was capable of addressing an audience and making a strong impression on listeners. Shortly after the outbreak of World War I this contributed to his appointment by the Serbian government to a mission in the United States. In 1915, as an unknown Serbian hieromonk, he toured most of the major U.S. cities, where he held numerous lectures, fighting for the union of the Serbs and South Slavic peoples. This mission gained ground: America sent over 20,000 volunteers to Europe, most of whom later fought on the Salonika Front.

Movie Trailer: "The Current War" (2017)

The Current War is a 2017 American historical drama film directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and written by Michael Mitnick. The film presents the story of the "war of the currents" between electricity titans Thomas Edison, and partners George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla, which determined whose electrical system would power the modern world. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston among others.

Nikola Tesla and the Serbian Orthodox Church

Address given for the Berkeley Organization of Serbian Students evening of commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Nikola Tesla’s death. Here we offer a slightly revised version of the original Berkeley Address.

By Bogdan Lubardić, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer

University of Belgrade - Faculty of Orthodox Theology, Serbia

9 February 2013

Your Grace, Bishop Maxim, very reverend and reverend fathers, distinguished colleagues, dear students and friends, I have been honored by the invitation to address you in the name of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of Belgrade University on the occasion of celebrating Saint Sava's Day here in San Francisco. And yet, I am to speak about the famous Serbian-American scientist Nikola Tesla (1856–1943). I have been asked to reflect, if only very briefly, on his legacy in regard to the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is my modest opinion that the following views may be a reasonable and legitimate evaluation of his position in the collective living memory of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Fr. Milutin Tesla (1819-1879), Nikola Tesla's Father

Milutin Tesla was born in Raduc, county Medak, Lika, on February 19 (OS), 1819. The Serbs came to Raduc from around Knin in the 1690s, having arrived there from western Serbia, via Hercegovina. The name Tesla denotes either a trade, as tesla is Serbian for adze - a small axe with a blade at right angles to the handle - or a physical characteristic, such as protruding teeth, prevalent in the Tesla family. The name Tesla is also found in Ukraine.

Georgina-Djuka Tesla (1822-1892), Nikola Tesla's Mother

"The mother's loss grips one's head more powerfully than any other sad experience in life." - Nikola Tesla, 1924

In my library, amongst the myriad books and papers about Nikola Tesla, beginning with those written nearly a century ago, and including the web entries created in our own day, there is a veritable sea of information, and quite a bit of disinformation, about the man who "invented the 20th century." Tesla had been declared, variously, an Austrian, a Hungarian, an East European, American, Yugoslav, Croat, occasionally even a Serb - which he was, by birth, heritage and his human consciousness. Nikola Tesla's father, Milutin, is always listed as a priest, sometimes an Orthodox priest, or a Greek Orthodox priest, only rarely as a Serbian Orthodox priest, which he was, and a most excellent, learned and devout man at that.