Parishioners from Konavle Made More Than a Thousand Sandwiches
Father Petar Markić and young volunteers from the parishes of Pridvorje and Dubravka distributed food and water to exhausted travelers who waited for hours at the border with Montenegro.
Father Petar Markić and young volunteers from the parishes of Pridvorje and Dubravka distributed food and water to exhausted travelers who waited for hours at the border with Montenegro.
While traffic jams stretched up to 20 kilometers through Konavle last weekend and travelers waited for hours at the border crossing to Montenegro, parishioners from two local parishes decided to take action. At the initiative of Father Petar Markić, pastor of the Parish of St. Sergius and Bacchus in Pridvorje, they organized the preparation and distribution of more than a thousand sandwiches to people caught in an unenviable situation.
The idea was born while Father Petar watched footage of the queues in which families with children and elderly people waited for hours in the scorching heat. "Watching those images and everything happening there, especially seeing children and the elderly waiting for 10 or 12 hours, I thought how hard even our small traffic jams are for us, let alone situations like this," Father Petar Markić told Dulist.
Soon after, a young man from the parish called him with the same idea. They immediately contacted a bakery, got bread and cold cuts, and through the local cultural society (KUD) called for more volunteers. They delivered the first batch of sandwiches by motorcycle. As Dubrovniknet reports, Father Petar said: "We all saw those lines of cars through Konavle, how tired and hungry people were, so I was thinking how to help them, and then my young parishioner called me with the same idea."
According to data reported by Narod.hr, the action, which took place on Sunday, August 2, 2026, involved faithful from the Parish of St. Sergius and Bacchus in Pridvorje and the Parish of St. Nicholas in Dubravka, as well as volunteers from other parishes and even non-Catholics. They used 30 kilograms of ham and 30 kilograms of cheese to prepare the sandwiches.
Father Petar posted a call for help on social media, asking for donations of bread, cold cuts, cheese, pâtés, fruit, and juice. "There are still huge crowds at the border crossing, and many people, including families with children, are waiting for hours in high temperatures. We would like to organize the distribution of sandwiches and food to those waiting," his post read.
Volunteers started making sandwiches around 4 p.m. and went out to the main road after midnight. In the meantime, firefighters provided water, and members of the Vitaljina Youth Association were already on the ground. "Little by little, we contacted people and bakeries. Once we picked up the bread, we bought cheese and started making sandwiches," Father Petar recalled for Dulist.
The reactions of the travelers were what everyone remembered most fondly. "It was a greater blessing for us while we were handing out sandwiches to see the faces of tired people light up in that line than the sandwiches we brought them. Everyone was grateful, and especially the little children reacted sincerely," Father Petar said for Dubrovniknet.
Besides food, human closeness meant a lot to the travelers. "Our young people talked to them the whole time, smiled, and asked how they were. That was exactly what people needed because they saw that someone cared," Father Petar emphasized. A particularly touching story was about a female traveler who got lost in the dark looking for her husband's car, and volunteers helped her communicate using Google Translate.
Some residents living along the main road also helped by opening their homes for sanitary needs and setting up water hoses, despite the fact that the traffic jams disrupted their daily lives. According to a statement from the Media Office of the Dubrovnik Diocese, the line sometimes came to a standstill, so travelers waited up to ten hours.
For Father Petar, this gesture has a deeper meaning. "As a Christian, this means a lot to me because it's how we witness and live our Christianity in everyday life. It's a simple gesture that means a lot to people," he concluded for Dulist. He added that the media attention today was harder for him than the action itself, but that his young parishioners deserved their moment of glory for their selfless effort.
