Metropolitanate of Zagreb, Ljubljana and all Italy

Metropolitanate of Zagreb, Ljubljana and all Italy
Jurisdiction	Patriarchate of Peć (Serbia)
Diocese type	Metropolitanate
Founded	1557
Current Bishop	Metropolit Jovan
See	Zagreb
Headquarters	Zagreb Croatia
Territory	Croatia,Slovenia
Language	Church Slavonic Serbian
Population	300,000 est.
Website	[www.mitropolija-zagrebacka.org]

Metropolitanate of Zagreb, Ljubljana and all Italy is one of the five Metropolitanates of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The headquarters of the Metropolia is located in Zagreb, Croatia and its territory covers north of today's Croatia, and the whole of Slovenia and Italy.

History

Metropolit Jovan

Kantakuzina Katarina Branković

The above-mentioned regions (except Italy) are inhabited by Serbs who for the most part settled there after fleeing Bosnia before the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. In some areas such as the Habsburg Military Krajina Serb population constituted the largest ethnic group. Because of newcomers Serbs, Pope Eugene IV sent at 1438 Jakob de Marcia to Slavonia in missionary, he have task to baptized "schismatic" in "Roman religion", and if that fails, that banish them. On the territory of present-day Metropolitanate of Zagreb, Ljubljana and Italy, Serbian Orthodox clergy met in the time of Kantakuzina Katarina Branković, daughter of Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković.

Since the renewal of the Patriarchate of Peć in 1557, the Orthodox Serbs of Old Slavonia spiritual guidance of the Diocese of Požega, who is enthroned at the Orahovica Monastery. 1595 seat of the Diocese from Orahovica is moved to Western Slavonia in order to avoid a Turkish oppression. New headquarters is located in Marča Monastery. Marča archbishops led the difficult fight against Roman Catholic proselytism.

Lepavina monastery

Serbian Orthodox Secondary School "Kantakuzina Katarina Branković"

In addition Monastery Marča, the other spiritual center of Orthodox Serbs in the area was and still is Lepavina Monastery. Abbot Lepavina Kondrat was killed in 1716, defending the purity of Orthodox faith. He was killed by Serbs who accepted Catholicism. In 1734 the headquarters moved to a monastery Lepavina.

20th century

Orthodox church in Zagreb

The Diocese got Metropolitanate status in 1931. For the first metropolitan was elected Dositej Vasić, a learned theologian, a man of broad vision and understanding in relations with other nations and religions. He was tortured by the government of NDH. About his suffering found in the statement of Belgian consul Robert Arnold who said next after he met him in prison: "By God, this is the savagery of what these people are doing." Germans thereafter transferred him to Belgrade where he died as a result of torture.

After World War II, the Zagreb Metropolitanate and the other Dioceses in the territory of Croatia were administered by Vicar Bishop Arsenije Bradvarević. He was succeeded by Damascus Grdanički, previously Bishop of Banat, and after his death in 1969, the Metropolitanate was administered by Bishop of Slavonia Emilian Marinović.

At the regular session of the Holy Assembly of Serbian Orthodox Church in the 1977, the spiritual guidance of this Metropolitanate is entrusted to Bishop Jovan of Lepavina (Pavlović), which was elected for Metropolit of Zagreb in 1982. On the proposal of the Metropolit Jovan, the Metropolitanate in 1983 expanded its name to the Metropolitanate of Zagreb, Ljubljana and all Italy.

Metropolit Jovan was engaged in peacekeeping actions before the Yugoslav wars in the nineties. He organized the meeting of the Serbian Patriarch Pavle and Cardinal Franjo Kuharić (first in the spring of 1991 in Sremski Karlovci, and the other later in Slavonski Brod). He also organized a meeting of Patriarch Pavle and the Croatian President Franjo Tuđman.

Sources

• Vjerske zajednice u Hrvatskoj, Prometej, 2008, Zagreb, Croatia
• Идентитет Цркве, Serb Orthodox Church, http://www.spc.rs/sr/crkva
• Promocija knjiga Mitropolita Jovana u Zagrebu, Lepavina monastery, http://www.manastir-lepavina.org/arhiva/novosti/index.php/weblog/detaljnije/promocija_knjige_mitropolita_jovana_u_zagrebu/

External links

• Official website
• Lepavina monastery