The library "Stevan Jorgović" was founded in 1963. In the description of the work of the Administration in 1963, the "Vesnik" of the Serbian Orthodox Church Holy Trinity in Montreal, among other things, states: “The Stevan Jorgović library, founded by Stevan's parents, Milutin and Juliet, was donated to the church with financial help."

The member of the Financial Committee, a long-time secretary of the Management Board, Zlatomir Miskovic became a librarian. He started organizing the library. He immediately made a list of books that, along with a cover letter, was delivered to most members of our parish. In this way, everyone was introduced to the library content, regulations and work hours. According to the library list, there were about 300 books, most of which were in Serbian, and a smaller number in French and English. From year to year, the library continued to be enriched with the donations of valuable works of our national writers as well as selected works of foreign writers. Zlatomir Miskovic retired from the library in 1976 due to illness.

All who worked on the establishment and maintenance of the library had a far-reaching plan - how to help cultural education of the parish, how to help the progress of our younger generations, to enrich their own language and to improve their education. This noble idea is the foundation of the establishment and work of our library. They all deserve our great gratitude and great respect.

The year 1976 represents a great step forward in the life of our church. It was moved to a new church building at Melville Avenue 349 in Westmount. This was followed with renovations of both the interior and exterior of the church as well as the arrangement of parochial opportunities in the new environment. Throughout this period, the library remained without any regular supervision and it lacked an official librarian. Nevertheless, people carried on with book donations and as a result the library collection continued to grow. The then priest, Father Krsta Rikic, performed certain tasks in the library when he had free time.

Mrs. Melanija Puric became a librarian in 1987. With the unselfish help of the member of the Church Municipality Administration, Cvija Maksimovic, who enjoyed the reputation for being a money-wise person, but together with the priest, Fr Krsto Rakic provided everything that was necessary for the arranging of books. First he bought two bookshelves, and then the basic material for the card catalogue. In addition, he also organized help for writing data cards on the typewriter. The main associates to this work were Dana Popov and Julijana Nedeljkovic. Thus, our library was created. The work on the organization was very often interrupted by certain jobs in the spatial arrangement, repairs in the interior of the building, and other different activities which sometimes took place in the library room. Every work in the library was suspended during the reconstruction of the church building and hall. However, in a few shorter periods, the library was opened to our readership audience.

In 2004, the library had over 1800 books registered in the card catalogue. Most of the books were in Serbian, while a smaller number was in French and English. The library was organized according to the system of small libraries but with partial help - Dewey Decimal Classification System - which can be expanded with an increase in the number of books. Our readers were always informed about the work of the library through the Parish Gazette of our church. The voluntary and expert work of Mrs. Melanija Purić and donations contributed to the development of our library to this extent.

Mrs. Melanija Puric was a librarian for 28 years. After the retirement of Mrs. Puric in 2015, the library didn’t work for 2 years.

Work on the reorganization of the existing collection, as well as the renovation of the library fund, started in January 2017. While the works are ongoing, you can follow all the information about the progress of our library in the "News" section.

Translated by

Jasmina Stojanovic

Меланија Пурић