Serbian Orthodox Church


The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.
The majority of the population in Serbia, Montenegro and Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina are baptised members of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is organised into metropolitanates and eparchies, located primarily in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Croatia. Other congregations are located in the Serb diaspora. The Serbian Patriarch serves as first among equals in his Church. The current patriarch is Porfirije, enthroned on 19 February 2021.
The Church achieved autocephalous status in 1219, under the leadership of Saint Sava, becoming the independent Archbishopric of Žiča. Its status was elevated to that of a patriarchate in 1346, and was subsequently known as the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć. This patriarchate was abolished by the Ottoman Empire in 1766, though several regional sections of the Church continued to exist, most prominent among them being the Metropolitanate of Karlovci, in the Habsburg monarchy. After the re-creation of Serbia, ecclesiastical autonomy was regained in 1831, and the autocephaly was renewed in 1879. The modern Serbian Orthodox Church was re-established in 1920, after the unification of the Metropolitanate of Belgrade, the Patriarchate of Karlovci, and the Metropolitanate of Montenegro.

History

Early Christianity

started to spread throughout Southeastern Europe during the first century AD. Early martyrs Florus and Laurus from the second century, who were murdered along with other 300 Christians in Ulpiana are venerated as Christian saints. Bishop Irenaeus of Sirmium was also martyred, in 304. Emperor Constantine the Great, born in Naissus, was the first Christian ruler of the Roman Empire. Several local bishops, seated in present-day Serbia, became prominent during the fourth century, such as Germinius of Sirmium, Ursacius of Singidunum and Secundianus of Singidunum, while several Councils were held in Sirmium.
In 395, the Empire was divided, and its eastern half later became the Eastern Empire. In 535, Emperor Justinian I created the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima, centred in the emperor's birth-city of Justiniana Prima, near modern-day Lebane, Serbia. The archbishopric had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all provinces of the Diocese of Dacia. By the beginning of the seventh century, Byzantine provincial and ecclesiastical order in the region was destroyed by invading Avars and Slavs. Church life was renewed in the same century in the provinces of Illyricum and Dalmatia after a more pronounced Christianisation of the Serbs and other Slavs by the Roman Patriarchate. In the seventh and mid-eighth centuries the area was not under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Christianisation of Serbs

The history of the early medieval Serbian Principality is recorded in the work De Administrando Imperio, compiled by Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. The drew information on the Serbs from, among others, a Serbian source. The Serbs were said to have received the protection of Emperor Heraclius, and Porphyrogenitus stressed that the Serbs had always been under Imperial rule. According to, the Serbs at first received their baptism from the. His account on the first Christianisation of the Serbs can be dated from 632 to 638; this might have been Porphyrogenitus' construction, or may have encompassed a limited group of chiefs, with lesser reception by the wider layers of the tribe. From the seventh until the mid-ninth century, the Serbs were under influence of the. The initial ecclesiastical affiliation with a specific diocese is uncertain, probably was not an Adriatic centre. Early medieval Serbs are accounted as Christian by the 870s, but it was a process that ended in the late ninth century during the time of Basil I, and medieval necropolises until the 13th century in the territory of modern Serbia show an "incomplete process of Christianisation" as local Christianity depended on the social structure.
The expansion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople over the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum is considered to have begun in 731 by Emperor Leo III when he annexed Sicily and Calabria, but whether the also expanded into the eastern parts of Illyricum and Dalmatia is uncertain and a matter of scholarly debate. The expansion most definitely happened since the mid-ninth century, when the Byzantine emperors and patriarch demanded that Church administrative borders follow political borders. In the same century, the region was also politically contested between the Carolingian Empire and Byzantine Empire. The most influential and successful was Emperor Basil I, who actively worked on gaining control over all of Illyricum. Basil I likely sent at least one embassy to Prince Mutimir of Serbia, who decided to maintain the communion of Church in Serbia with the when Pope John VIII invited him to return to the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Sirmium in a letter dated to May 873.

Alexis P. Vlasto argued that the Eparchy of Ras was founded during Mutimir's rule, as a bishopric of Serbia, at Stari Ras with the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, as part of the general plan of establishing bishoprics in the Slavic lands of the Empire, confirmed by the Fourth Council of Constantinople in 879–880, most significantly related to the creation of the autonomous Archbishopric of Bulgaria of which the lost jurisdiction. However, according to Predrag Komatina, there is no mention of any bishopric in Serbia. In early medieval Europe, the existence of a Christian church without a bishop in a specific land was not uncommon, and being placed under the Pannonian bishop implies that there was no local Serbian bishop at the time. Tibor Živković concluded, based on primary sources of the, that there was no information regarding the establishment of any new ecclesiastical centre and organisation in Serbia, that the Serbian ecclesiastical centre and capital was at Destinikon, while Ras in the mid-ninth century was only a border fort which became the ecclesiastical centre of the bishopric by 1019 or 1020. The imperial charter of Basil II from 1020 to the Archbishopric of Ohrid, in which the rights and jurisdictions were established, has the earliest mention of the bishopric of Ras, stating it belonged to the autocephalous during the reigns of Peter I and Samuel. It was of a small size. It is considered that it was possibly founded by the Bulgarian emperor, but most probably it represented the latest date in which it could have been integrated into the. The Ras Bishopric was probably part of the Bulgarian metropolis of Morava, but certainly not of Dyrrhachium. If it was in Serbian territory, it seems that the Church in Serbia or part of the territory of Serbia became linked and influenced by the between 870 and 924.
With Christianisation in the ninth century, Christian names appear among the members of Serbian dynasties, like Petar, Stefan , Pavle, and Zaharije. Prince Petar Gojniković was evidently a Christian ruler, and Christianity was presumably spreading in his time. Since Serbia bordered Bulgaria, Christian influences and perhaps missionaries came from there, increasing during the twenty-year peace. The Bulgarian annexation of Serbia in 924 was important for the future direction of the Serbian Church. By then, at the latest, Serbia must have received the Cyrillic script and Slavic religious texts, already familiar but perhaps not yet preferred to Greek.

Archbishopric of Ohrid (1018–1219)

Following his final subjugation of the Bulgarian state in 1018, Basil II, to underscore the Byzantine victory, established the Archbishopric of Ohrid by downgrading the Bulgarian Patriarchate to the rank of archbishopric. The now archbishopric remained an autocephalous church, separate from the. However, while the archbishopric was completely independent in any other aspect, its primate was selected by the emperor from a list of three candidates submitted by the local church synod. In three sigillia issued in 1020, Basil II gave extensive privileges to the new see. In the first and third charter of Basil II, the Bishopric of Serbia was mentioned, whilst in the second charter of Basil II, dated 1020, the Bishopric of Ras is mentioned, with its cathedra at the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
The tenth- or eleventh-century Gospel Book Codex Marianus, written in Old Church Slavonic in the Glagolitic script, is one of the oldest known Slavic manuscripts. It was partly written in the Serbian redaction of Old Church Slavonic. Other early manuscripts include the 12th-century Gršković's fragment of the Acts of the Apostles and Mihanović's fragment of the Acts of the Apostles.

Autocephalous Archbishopric (1219–1346)

Serbian prince Rastko Nemanjić, son of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, took monastic vows at Mount Athos as Sava in 1192. Three years later, his father joined him, taking monastic vows as Simeon. Father and son asked the Holy Community to found a Serbian religious centre at the abandoned site of Hilandar, which they renovated. This marked the beginning of a renaissance. Sava's father died at Hilandar in 1199 and was canonised as St. Simeon the Myroblyte. Sava stayed for some years, rising in rank, then returned to Serbia in 1207, taking with him the remains of his father, which he interred at Studenica Monastery, after reconciling his two quarrelling brothers Stefan Nemanjić and Vukan Nemanjić. Stefan asked him to remain in Serbia with his clerics, which he did, providing widespread pastoral care and education to the people. Sava founded several churches and monasteries, among them Žiča. In 1217, Stefan was proclaimed King of Serbia, and various questions regarding church reorganisation were opened.
St Sava returned to the Holy Mountain in 1217 or 1218, preparing for the formation of an autocephalous Serbian Church. He was consecrated in 1219 as the first Archbishop of the Serbian Church, and was given autocephaly by Manuel I of Constantinople, then in exile at Nicaea. In the same year, Sava published Zakonopravilo. Thus the Serbs acquired both forms of independence: political and religious. After this, in Serbia, Sava stayed in Studenica and continued to educate the Serbian people in their faith. Later he called for a council outlawing the Bogomils, whom he considered heretics. Sava appointed several bishops, sending them around Serbia to organise their dioceses. To maintain his standing as the religious and social leader, he continued to travel among the monasteries and lands to educate the people. In 1221 a synod was held in Žiča monastery, condemning Bogomilism.
The following seats were newly created in the time of Saint Sava:
Older eparchies under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Archbishop were:
File:VergineTricherusa.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Trojeručica is often considered the most important icon of the SOC, and the principal icon of Mount Athos
In 1229 or 1233, Sava went on a pilgrimage to Palestine and in Jerusalem he met with Patriarch Athanasius II. Sava saw Bethlehem where Jesus was born, the Jordan River where Christ was baptised, and the Great Lavra of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified, his namesake. Sava asked Athanasius II, his host, and the Great Lavra fraternity, led by hegoumenos Nicholas, if he could purchase two monasteries in the Holy Land. His request was accepted and he was offered the monasteries of Saint John the Theologian on Mount Sion and St. George's Monastery at Akona, both to be inhabited by Serbian monks. The icon Trojerucica, a gift to the Great Lavra from St. John Damascene, was given to Sava and he, in turn, bequeathed it to Hilandar.
St Sava died in Veliko Tarnovo, capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, during the reign of Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. According to his Biography, he fell ill following the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of the Epiphany, 12 January 1235. Sava was visiting Veliko Tarnovo on his way back from the Holy Land, where he had founded a hospice for Syrian pilgrims in Jerusalem and arranged for Serbian monks to be welcomed in the established monasteries there. He died of pneumonia in the night between Saturday and Sunday, 14 January 1235, and was buried at the Cathedral of the Holy Forty Martyrs in Veliko Tarnovo where his body remained until 6 May 1237, when his sacred bones were moved to the monastery Mileševa in southern Serbia.
In 1253 the see was transferred to the Monastery of Peć by Archbishop Arsenije. The Serbian primates had since moved between the two. Sometime between 1276 and 1292 the Cumans burned Žiča Monastery, and King Stefan Milutin renovated it in from 1292 to 1309, during the patriarchate of Jevstatije II. Between 1289 and 1290, the chief treasures of the ruined monastery, including the relics of Saint Jevstatije I, were transferred to Peć Monastery. During the rule of the same king, the Monastery of Gračanica was also renewed, and during the reign of King Stefan Uroš III, the Monastery of Dečani was built, under the supervision of Archbishop Saint Danilo II.