The Drekalovići (
Cyrillic: Дрекаловићи;
Albanian: Ndrekalorë) are a historical union of brotherhoods of
Kuči.
Their patron saint (
slava) is
St. Nicholas (Nikoljdan), the old tradition of Orthodox Serbs.
They were part of a wave of settlement in the mid 16th century in the area of Kuči, and came to form an important part of it. Unlike the brotherhoods that form Old Kuči (the families that already lived in the area before their arrival) the Drekalovići all claim ancestry from a single ancestor,
Drekale after whom they are named.[1]
Originally, a
Catholic and
Albanian-speaking
tribe,[2][3] they gradually became Orthodox and Slavic-speaking, in particular after the conversion of their leader
Lale Drekalov in the 17th century when
Rufim Njeguš was
Metropolitan of Cetinje.[4][5] The Drekalovići marry within Kuči, but historically form no marriage with
Berisha or a large part of
Kastrati, fis which they regarded in their tradition as patrilineally related to them.
^Ivan Jovović, 2013, Dvooltarske crkve na crnogorskom primorju, {Sličnu zaslugu, samo
u obrnutom smjeru, istoriografi poput Sime Milutinovića i Dimitrije Milakovića navode u korist crnogorskog mitropolita Rufima Boljevića, koji je Kuče, Bratonožiće i Drekaloviće iz
katoličanstva preveo u pravoslavlje, "Similar merit, only in the opposite direction, historiographers like Sime Milutinovic and Dimitrije Milakovic stated in favor of Montenegrin Metropolitan Rufim Boljevic, who is Kuce, Bratonozice and Drekalovice from
Catholicism converted to Orthodoxy"}
https://www.maticacrnogorska.me/files/53/06%20ivan%20jovovic.pdf #page= 69