Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana

Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana
Zagreb Orthodox Cathedral
Location
Territory	Northern Croatia and Slovenia
Headquarters	Zagreb, Croatia
Statistics
Population - Total	300,000 est.
Information
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox
Sui iuris church	Serbian Orthodox Church
Established	1557
Language	Church Slavonic Serbian
Current leadership
Bishop	Elected Metropolitan Porfirije Perić
Website
mitropolija-zagrebacka.org

Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana

Serbian Orthodox Secondary School "Kantakuzina Katarina Branković"

Lepavina Monastery

Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana 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 northern Croatia and the whole of Slovenia.

History

Orthodox church in Zagreb

The above-mentioned regions are inhabited by Serbs who for the most part settled there after fleeing Bosnia before the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia. In some areas, such as the Habsburg Military Krajina, Serbs constituted the largest ethnic group. In 1438, Pope Eugene IV sent Jakob de Marcia to Slavonia as a missionary to baptize "schismatic" Serbs in "Roman religion", and if that failed, to banish them. 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.

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 those Serbs who had become Catholics. In 1734 the headquarters moved to a monastery at Lepavina.

20th century

The Diocese received 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 and murdered during World War II in the Independent State of Croatia.

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 the 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 organized the meeting of 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.

See also

• List of the Eparchies of the Serbian Orthodox Church
• Serbs of Croatia

Sources

• Vjerske zajednice u Hrvatskoj, Prometej, 2008, Zagreb, Croatia (Croatian)
• Идентитет Цркве, Serb Orthodox Church (Serbian)

External links

• Official website; accessed 6 June 2015. (Serbian)
• Lepavina monastery webpage; accessed 6 June 2015. (Croatian)