Legends
The legend for White Plate St. Savior
For the existing of this sanctuary there is a legend that goes like this: at this very same place there used to be a big white rock – that’s how it got its name. People considered it as holy and they used to light candles on it, but during the Ottoman slaveru people from Velesta wanted to take it and use it at their graveyard for rite. They got together and gathered 20 wooden cars with twice as many oxen in order to lift it and transport it to Velesta, but they failed, their cars got broken and they didn’t get too far. They went to a witch doctor and he told them that the rock is clergy and it is better for them to leave it alone. So the men from Velesta left it there and went home. They left it near some meadows where a lady named Sava Batkoska used to live, she only had two buffaloes and two young calves and an old two wheeled cart so with the help of few men from Vevcani they took it back to where it was and build a small church next to it and called it St. Savior.
The legend of Spase and Spasica
There is another story that is being passed between the citizens of Visni, it is about two siblings, a brother Spase and his sister Spasica, they were named by the villagers because they were orphans. Their parents were killed and that’s why they were hiding in a monastery on the hill Babus under the village Visni. The Turkish soldiers came and destroyed the monastery and killed all the monks, in fear that Spasica will be made Turkish the two siblings took separate paths and escaped. Spasa went into the church – cave in Visni and Spase went to mountain Jablanica, above Vevcani on 1300m above sea level where there is a monastery standing till this very day in his honor. People still believe that the two siblings visit each other and when they do you can witness a burning ray of fire across the sky between Vevcani and Visni.
The legend about the settlement of Vevcani
There are no evidence about the beginning of the settlement only assumptions and legends. So, according to the legend the first people that settled were the two brothers Kalan and Alula. The interesting part is that they didn’t built their homes next to each other but further apart, the Alula neighborhood is at the very top of the village at the beginning of the mountain, but the homes of Kalan family are at the beginning of the village. Centuries have passed since then, but the relationship and closeness between these two families has stayed strong till this very day there is no evidence that there has been a marriage between these two families.
The Legend of the Small Imam (priest Naum)
There are several believes about this man Naum Popov, called the Small Imam. But, even today he is still a mystery, unresolved person, a polyglot, witty and discerning man. He had a tragic faith and died as a victim for his own village.
The legend goes like this:
Naum Popov from Vevcani studied for a priest in Carigrad. He could speak Turkish, Greek and Arabian. In that time, a person named Grozdan moved to Upper Belica and become a ruler to the village with the ruling given to him by the Turkish authorities. Unlawfully, he took the biggest land on the mountain Jablanica that was used by the people of Vevcani as pastures and didn’t allow them to use it as such. This dispute lasted for a long time until Naum thought of something cunning. He asked for the villagers to gather money so he can travel to Istanbul, borrowed imam’s clothes and represented himself as a Muslim Imam to the Sultan himself and asked him to give back the land to the villagers of Vevcani. The Sultan believed him that he is indeed an Imam, because he spoke Turkish well and gave him a written document that said that the land belongs to the villagers.
He was killed during a service in the monastery "St. Martinija" in the village Tash Marunishta, he was 38 years old and had 6 children. He was buried under the church Dolna crkva in Vevcani and his grave is under it till this very day.