Distinguished Presidents of the Academies of Sciences and Arts,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Tonight I address you with divided feelings. On one hand, as a President of the Republic of Macedonia, my thoughts are with my citizens from the flooded areas of Skopje. With the families that have lost their loved ones, with the people who have lost their homes. I express my condolences to the families of those who lost their lives; I wish a fast recovery of the injured, and a renewal of daily life in the affected areas.

On the other hand, it is a duty and honor for me to welcome you in our cultural and spiritual capital – Ohrid; a town that, for centuries, was part of the civilizational corridor known as Via Egnatia, connecting the East and the West. It is exactly here that, more than 11 centuries ago, halfway between the Old and the New Rome, the new Slavic European civilization was born.

We are gathered here tonight to pay our tribute and respect to the person who had a significant role in that historical endeavor; To remind ourselves of the most experienced and enlightened disciple of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, our great people's saint and teacher – St. Clement of Ohrid.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the time when St. Clement arrived to this area, he found illiterate and spiritually immature people. The area was poor and neglected. Ohrid was a mere shadow of the famous ancient Lychnidos. Faced with such educational, spiritual, but also material poverty, Clement "barely even closed his eyes to sleep, feeding and rejoicing on the care he showed to the people. He was always teaching and distributing, correcting ignorance, bringing order into the chaos, becoming all things to all, according to the needs of the people". These are words of great importance – not only because they were written by Ohrid Archbishop Theophylact, who was one of the most educated men in his time and a teacher of emperors, but also because of the very essence of his claim that Clement was to the Slavs what Paul the Apostle was to the first Christians.

Clement was the first original Slavic writer, poet and orator. It was exactly here, in Ohrid, that he wrote his sermons, lessons and hagiographies. Although written in a language that had barely obtained its first alphabet – the Glagolitic, the works of St. Clement are in the same range as the most prominent examples of old Byzantine literature.

Through the Ohrid Literary School, Clement contributed to the educational, spiritual and moral enlightenment of Slavic peoples. The 3500 students of St. Clement later became the teachers of Slavdom. Some of the oldest Slavic manuscripts were written here, on the shores of this white lake, on the slopes of this hill, by the hands of his students.

As a preacher and pedagogue, Clement instilled faith in people and developed the habits of the heart. He encouraged people to refrain from all kinds of malice, anger, defamation and greed, and instead, to compete in kindness, mercy and hospitality. If you are able to feel the traditional Macedonian hospitality these days, you should know that it is part of the legacy of St. Clement.

The solidarity and humanity that Macedonian citizens show towards the victims of the disastrous floods in Skopje these days are part of the legacy of St. Clement. I am encouraged to see this noble tradition re-appear in critical moments, when most needed.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

While reading St. Clement's sermons and lessons, three questions were constantly on my mind.
What would St. Clement say about our generation, our societies and our world in general?
To which extend have we preserved his rich linguistic, educational, spiritual and moral legacy?
And, most importantly, have we succeeded in passing his legacy on to our youth, as he used to do back in his day?

I believe that St. Clement would be stunned by the fact that so many fervent academic and political battles were fought in the past century and half with a view of his acquisition and framing within the concepts from the 19 and 20th century. He would be stunned because he lived in a world and age without national states and national ideologies and identities – in a world of empires.

St. Clement would advise us to read one of his sermons in which he refers to the epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians in which he categorically claims that Faith in God rises above all differences in terms of identity; and that, regardless of our ethnic, linguistic, cultural, political, social or gender affiliation, we are all to observe the golden rule: to treat others the way that we would like to be treated. Especially in times of troubles and needs such as we now have in Macedonia.

St. Clement would remind us of his participation in the mission of Ss. Cyril and Methodius to Moravia; of his inauguration as priest in Rome; that he was a teacher to the Slavic peoples, but that he was equally respected by Byzantine church officials. And, just as his physical relics connect Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy, so his spiritual and educational work connects all Slavic peoples.

Distinguished Academy Presidents,

Your attendance of this solemn occasion is an expression of the awareness that all of us, who are part of the Slavic linguistic community, are equal heirs and descendants of St. Clement. And as such, we have shared rights, but also responsibilities. Namely, to cherish his legacy, sharing it and passing it on to future generations. Apparently, this is something that we have not invested enough effort in doing.

We are living in times of major crises. Europe is facing an unresolved financial and debt crisis, the current migration crisis, and an even more serious, security crisis.

However, all of these crises stem from the deep moral crisis that has affected humanity, including our own societies; Societies that have embraced progress, at the same time uncritically rejecting tradition. We tried to build and develop our modern civilization, reducing ethics to the level of personal choice. We separated freedoms and rights from duties and responsibilities. We are praising St. Clement without observing his words. We call upon him, without even seeing what he is calling us upon. The consequences of these deviations are undoubtedly felt by all of us, and especially our youth.

Distinguished participants,

In less than two years, the first generation born in the second millennium will come of age. They will have the right to vote in their respective countries. They will be able to elect and be elected. They will create future. But, what are the values that they are living with? What defines them?

The Millenials have grown up in an age of consumerism, moral relativism and extreme individualism. In a world full of people that are full of themselves, where success is a goal in itself and should be achieved at any price, and character is reduced to a question of personal choice. In an era of new technologies that allowed progress, but at the same time took away our free time, and with that, the possibility of reflection and contemplation.

Clement would surely praise their defiance to blindly trust authorities. That is the first precondition to critical thought. However, if the slogan of the 1960s was "don't trust anyone over 30", the slogan of this millennial generation would be "don't trust anyone older than you". Would Clement's message to the youth then be not to trust anyone or anything under 300 years? Otherwise put, to only rely on ideas, concepts and models that have stood the test of time.

Amazed by their self-confidence, courage and readiness to be socially active for a multitude of issues, St. Clement of Ohrid would probably advise them to channel the unique potential of their generation in function of achieving lasting values instead of passing virtual illusions.

Dear friends,

If all crises that our societies are currently faced with stem from the moral crisis, then it is necessary to deal with the root causes, and not just the consequences of the spirit of our time. Unless we eliminate the reasons for this illness of humanity, then the treatment of its symptoms would be in vain. And that goes for the recent floods in Skopje. It is not enough to mitigate the disastrous consequences, if we fail to build a sustainable culture of disaster risk resilience.

In this sense, we are about to face a paradox. The best way to move forward is to go back to the essential messages of St. Clement of Ohrid. I believe that one of his messages is hidden in his very name – Clement, or Clementia, meaning mercy; Mercy shown to us as people, and mercy that we, as people, should show to others, to our next of kin, our neighbors, even our enemies. This can only be done if we go back to his call – to help each other...to love our brethren, to love the poor, to show generosity, humility, restraint, and above all, compete in kindness in all of our actions. And in time of troubles and challenges that we face after the disastrous floods, respecting Clement's call is more than necessary.

It is only in that way that we will be able to restore the habits of the heart that are necessary for us to be the dignified heirs of our great teacher, St. Clement of Ohrid.

Thank you.