[6] With the Sultan's permission, he evicted janissaries who built an inn (han) on the ruins of the church foundation and Melentije wasted no time to begin to reconstruct the Rača Monastery anew.
Together with Kara-Marko Vasić, Milan Obrenović, Mateja Nenadović and Ilija Birčanin, he led the Serbian army in the battle with the Turks at Lučindan in 1808 in Oklec, Vranjkovina in Osat, and Pribićević near Srebrenica.
[1] After the Ottoman quelling of the uprising in 1813, the Turks set fire to the Rača monastery and slaughtered the monks Isajia and Ignjatija.
[6][7] The work is the creation of academic painter and sculptor Mihailo Milovanović of Užice, who presented the character of Hadži Melentije after the story of Abbot Zaharije, descriptions from books and the Serbian folk song "The Beginning of the Revolt against the Dahijas".
[7] The monument was unveiled and consecrated in the summer of 1924, and at the ceremony was welcomed by a large number of Račan district residents and Bishop Jefrem Bojović of Žiča.