Mihailo Jovanović asked that Serbian government hands over the object to the church for the reconstruction. The board for the reconstruction of the church was founded on and donations collection began. After the works on adaptation of the magazine began, they were finished in 9 months. The consecration was held on , by Metropolitan Mihailo. He compared the "resurrection" of the church with the biblical Raising of Lazarus. The regular service began by the spring of 1869 when the bell tower was completed. The altar was roofed in September 1869. The first bell was placed in October 1870. As the fortress was largely a military facility, Ružica was dedicated as the military church. Modern church The church was heavily damaged during World War I and suffered constant bombardment of the fortress by the Austro-Hungarian forces from across the Sava. It was almost completely demolished in 1915 and was also plundered by the Austro-Hungarian and German soldiers. The altar and the bell tower were damaged the most. Being a garrison church, a Holy Communion for some 1,000 soldiers, defenders of Belgrade, was held in Ružica in 1914, when Austrians attacked for the first time, and in 1915, when they attacked again. The soldiers were holding positions in the trenches below the church where most of them were killed. In October 1915, a grenade fired from the 42 cm Gamma Mörser hit the fortress wall right above the church but didn't explode. Church was badly damaged by this time and if the grenade exploded (cartridge weighted and contained of TNT), it would destroy the wall of the Zindan Gate tower which was hit and would level the church to the ground as it is located below the wall. Still, the bell tower was destroyed and the entire apsidal side of the church was completely demolished. At the location of the modern Monument of Gratitude to France in Kalemegdan section of the fortress, there was a monument to Karađorđe, dedicated on 21 August 1913. During the Austro-Hungarian occupation, the Austrians planned to erect the bronze monument to their emperor, Franz Joseph I on that very spot so they melted the Karađorđe's monument to reuse the bronze. When the Franz Joseph monument was being shipped to Belgrade in 1918, Serbian forces captured the ship and confiscated the statue. It was later melted into three church bells, largest of which still tolls from the bell