Ohrid Academy of Humanism

The Ohrid Academy of the Humanism was formed on 19.01.1991 by Macedonian writer with international reputation, Jordan Plevnes in cooperation with Liljana Kotevska Plevnes, Zoran Veljanovski Letra and several Macedonian intellectuals, with the publishing house MACEDONIA PRIMA, and with the famous archeologist from Ohrid, Pasko Kuzman. Its international activity in the past 25 years has been in the following fields:

The primary mission of The Ohrid Academy of Humanism is publishing works which illuminate the period of the middle Ages, related to the living saints of the collective memory of all Slavic world, the apostles Ss. Cyril and Methodius, who, in 1980, were announced as Patrons of Europe by the Pope John Paul II. Their students who lived and worked in Ohrid St. Climent and St. Naum were founders of the Middle Age school of Humanism. Ohrid is famous as "The Slavic Jerusalem" or "Balkan Venice" and it was the place where the first University with 3500 students was established in this part of Europe. It passed on the glory of Lichnidos (the antique name of Ohrid) - The City of light all around the world.

In 2000, The Ohrid Academy of Humanism begins with the bilingual edition “The Ohrid richness of Memory”, dedicated to Grigor Prilcev's, the great name of the Macedonian poetry and the Balkan literature of the 19th century. Every year in the House - Museum of Grigor Prlichev of Ohrid, visitors from different countries of the world have been presented so far: France, Belgium, Russia, Spain, Bulgaria, Albania, Canada. They hold speech for “The second Homer of the Balkan poetry”. In that way they develop the outstanding idea that “the beauty shall save the world”.

THE CITY OF UNESCO OHRID

The project "Ohrid - International City of Humanism" started in the 80's of the XX century, with the book "Climent Ohridski and the School of humanism" by Nikola Boshale, followed by the complete literary work by Zhivko Chingo (1935 -1987). Also, here we can mention the exceptional historical explorations of Cvetan Grozdanov and Vera Bitrakova Grozdanova, members of The Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the works of Dragi Sterfanija, Risto Kuzmanovski, Zoran Kovachevski, Palvle Mitrevski, Stojan Ristevski, Dimche Koco, Boris Chipan, Dimche Malenko, Trajan Martinovski and Kosta Fortomar. The painter Vanlgel Naumoski (1924-2006) in his work portrayed the Eternity of Ohrid's timeless beauty. Contemporary painters Zhivko Pejovski, Jordan Manasievski, Slavko Upevce, Dragan Spasevski contiunued the great artistic tradition of the this city.

Contributing to this project Milos Lindro with his interest for spiritual mystery of Ohrid, Slave Gjorgo Dimovski - poet and president of of Struga Poetry Evenings, Dimitar Pandev - professor of Faculty of Philology in Skopje.

With the beginning of the new millennium started the restoration of St. Clement's university which should be a reminiscence of St. Clement time and spirit in modern meaning. After thorough archaeological research, new facilities will be build that will house a rich international library, a gallery of icons, and the old manuscripts of the Museum and Institute of Ohrid.

At the same period in Ohrid was published “The Secret Book”, which is one of the most mysterious manuscripts in the Europian history, i.e. The Bible of the Bogomilian movement in Europe. That journey began in the 10th century on the island “Golem Grad” in Prespa, and ended in Museum of the Inquisition in Carcassonne, in South France. Today it is kept in the National Library in Paris and in Pergamon museum in Vienna. This was the theme of the Macedonian feature film “The Secret Book” (2006), directed by Vlado Cvetanovski, according to the script of Ljube Cvetanovski and Jordan Plevnes, that London’s “Guardian” valued higher that “The Da Vinci Code”.

In January 2007,the Ohrid Academy of the Humanism together with the municipality of the city of Ohrid (just before the publishing of the work of the great Japanese Humanist, Daisaku Ikeda “The dialogue about the life” in the edition of “Macedonia Prima”), brought an official decision: each year in January to give a world award of Humanism. This will bring a new tradition about the presence of this mythical Macedonian city in the world’s horizon of harmonization in the philosophical, religious, political and artistic sense of our epoch. The first announced winner was the holder of the dialogue among the civilizations in the world, Daisaku Ikeda.

From October 2021, The Mayor of Ohrid, Mr. Kiril Pecakov is a member of International jury of Ohrid Academy of Humanism, and Ohrid Municipality contributes in the activities of the academy.

The autumn of 2016 is marked by the proclamation of Mother Teresa as a saint, and not only in Macedonia, but all the Balkan states feel this act as great celebration of modern times. The choice of the name Teresa came from St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and The Ohrid academy of Humanism, along with the publishing house Macedonia Prima, printed "Story of a Soul, the Autobiography", translated by Liljana Kotevska – Plevnes. This book was awarded by the prize “The Archbishop Gabriel”, for best spiritual book in Macedonia, and the French magazine La Revue St. Therese of Lisieux included in its 2008 edition a wonderful article about the discovering of St. Therese in the Balkans. By the end of this year the second Macedonian edition of this book, translated in more that hundred languages of the world, will be published in Ohrid.

Winners of WOLRD PRIZE FOR HUMANISM:

2007 - Daisaku Ikeda, Japan

2008 - Manoel De Oliveira, Portugal
2009 - Aleksandar Slozenicyn, Russia
2010 - Ravi Shankar, India
2011 - Peter Brook, UK
2012 - Vida Ognjenovic, Serbia
2013 - Herta Müller, Germany
2014 - Svetlin Roussev, Bulgaria
2015 - John Ralston Saul, Canada
2016 - Darko Gašparović, Croatia
2017 - Jiri Svoboda, Czech Republic
2018 - Jean-Patrick Connerade, UK
2019 - Romano Prodi, Italy
2020 - Georgi Stardelov, Macedonia
2021 - Abdulah Šarčević, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2022 - Dalimir Hajko, Slovakia
2023 - Victor Friedman, USA