Archimandrite
Saint Sebastian (Dabovich) of Jackson was born on June 9, 1863, in San Francisco to Serbian emigrant parents. He studied at the Kiev and St. Petersburg Spiritual Academies. In 1887, he took monastic vows and was ordained as a hierodeacon. In 1892, he was ordained as an hieromonk by Bishop Nicholas (Ziorov) of the Aleutian and Alaskan Diocese, under whose omophorion he carried out extensive educational, missionary, and pastoral work in Washington, California, and Minneapolis. In 1894, he built a church in Jackson, California, in honor of Saint Savva of Serbia, where the first Serbian national parish in America was established. In 1905, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite by Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of All Russia, and appointed head of the newly established Serbian Spiritual Mission. During the Second Balkan and First World Wars, he served as a chaplain in the Serbian army. He spent his last years in retirement at the Žiča Monastery, where he reposed on November 30, 1940. On May 29, 2015, he was canonized by the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
