Serbian Patriarchate of Peć

Vacancy Period

In the second half of the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire gradually conquered all Serbian lands, starting with the Serbian Despotate in 1459, followed by the conquest of the Bosnian Kingdom in 1463, Herzegovina in 1482, and Zeta in 1496. All eparchies of the Serbian Patriarchate were devastated during Ottoman raids, and many monasteries and churches were plundered and destroyed. Because of that, the period was remembered as "The Great Desolation" (ser. великое запустение). Although some Christian Serbs converted to Islam after the Ottoman conquest, the vast majority continued their adherence to the Eastern Orthodoxy. On the other hand, the structure of the Serbian Patriarchate was deeply disrupted. After the death of Patriarch Arsenije II in 1463, the question of succession was opened. Since sources are silent, historians concluded that the period of vacancy was prolonged, resulting in de facto abolition of the patriarchal office.

At the same time, the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Ohrid continued to expand towards northern Serbian eparchies until it took over the entire territory of the Serbian Patriarchate. The process of falling under the rule of the Archbishopric of Ohrid unfolded at the same pace as the Serbian lands were coming under Ottoman rule. Where there was no Ottoman authority, the archbishops of Ohrid could not extend their jurisdiction. There are several instances that point to the quite independent activity of certain Serbian bishops, who are mentioned without any indication that they were subject to the Archbishop of Ohrid. This applies, above all, to the Metropolitan of Zeta (until 1496), then to the Metropolitan of Herzegovina, who resided at the Mileševa Monastery (until 1482), and to the Metropolitan of Belgrade, who was under Hungarian rule until 1526. The newly arisen situation, in which the jurisdiction of the former Serbian Church was now under the Archbishopric of Ohrid, was unacceptable to the Serbian church leaders, who wanted to restore the previous ecclesiastical order. Shortly after the Pttoman conquest of Belgrade in 1521 and victory in the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, Serbian Metropolitan Pavle of Smederevo made a series of attempts to restore the Serbian Patriarchate, and for a short time managed to seize the throne of Peć, proclaiming himself to be the new Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch, but his movement was crushed by joint forces of the Archbishopric of Ohrid and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and after 1541 he went into exile. In spite of that, Serbian Church leaders continued to hope for a new chance to renew their old Patriarchate.

Early Modern Period

Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was restored in 1557, due to the mediation of some highly influential dignitaries at the Ottoman imperial court. During the second half of the reign of Sultan Suleiman I (1520–1566), one of the most notable Ottoman statesmen was pasha Mehmed Sokolović, who served as one of the viziers since 1555 and later became Grand Vizier (1565–1579). By birth, he was an Orthodox Serb, taken from his family as a boy under the rule of Devshirme and converted into Islam. Despite that, he later restored ties with his family, and in 1557 his cousin Makarije, one of the Serbian Orthodox bishops, was elected the new Serbian Patriarch of Peć.

The full restoration of the Patriarchate was of great importance for the Orthodox Serbs because it enabled them to reorganize and improve their spiritual and cultural life under the Ottoman rule. Territorial jurisdiction of the Patriarchate was expanded towards northern and western regions, with more than 40 eparchies, from Skopje to the south, to the Eparchy of Buda to the north. Among new eparchies in western and northern regions were: the Eparchy of Požega in lower Slavonia, the Eparchy of Bačka between Danube and Tisza, and the eparchies of Vršac and Timișoara in the region of Banat. One of the largest eparchies by territory was the Dabar and Bosnia, which had jurisdiction in the region of upper Drina and throughout central and western Bosnia up to the borders of Venetian Dalmatia and the Habsburg Military Frontier. The newly restored Serbian Patriarchate also included some eparchies in western Bulgaria. The basic title of its primate was Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch, although extended patriarchal titles sometimes included not only Serbs, but also Bulgarians, and various regions in western parts of the Balkans.

According to British historian Frederick Anscombe, there was "no ethnic monopoly on appointment to supposedly ethnic church positions" in the Patriarchate of Peć and the Archbishopric of Ohrid during the Ottoman era, due to the substantial expansion of their boundaries compared to the medieval period. He also added that, for this reason, those ecclesiastical institutions were supposed to have "no ethnic nature at that time, neither formally, nor in practice". However, the vast majority of the patriarchs of Peć were Serbs and were formal successors of Saint Sava, the first Serbian archbishop, retaining the title of patriarchs "of all Serbs". Furthermore, for Serbs in Ottoman Empire, the renewed Serbian Patriarchate was a religious and ethnic symbol that substituted for their long-lost state. Therefore, the Patriarchate could not stand aside of political events and some of its leaders participated in local uprisings against Ottoman rule. At the time of Patriarch Jovan Kantul (1592–1614), the Ottoman Ottomans took the remains of Saint Sava from the Mileševa Monastery to the Vračar hill in Belgrade, where they were burned by Sinan Pasha on a stake with deliberate aim of intimidating the Serbs at the time of the Banat Uprising (1594). The present-day Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade was built on the place where his remains were burned.

The turning point in the history of the Serbian Patriarchate was marked by the events of the Great Turkish War. During the war years, relations between Muslims and Christians in European provinces of the Ottoman Empire were greatly radicalized. As a result of Ottoman oppression, destruction of monasteries and violence against the non-Muslim civilian population, Serbs and their church leaders headed by Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III sided with Austrians in 1689. In the following punitive campaigns, Ottoman armies conducted many atrocities against local Christian populations in Serb lands, resulting in the Great Migration of the Serbs. Since northern parts of the Patriarchate came under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy during the war (1683–1699), Serbian eparchies in those regions were reorganized into the autonomous Metropolitanate of Krušedol (1708) that remained under supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarchate. In 1713, the seat of the Metropolitanate was moved to Sremski Karlovci. In 1718, by the Treaty of Požarevac, some northern and central regions of Serbia were ceded by the Ottomans to the Habsburgs, and in those territories an autonomous Metropolitanate of Belgrade was established, remaining under supreme jurisdiction of Serbian patriarch Mojsije I. In 1731, sees of Karlovci and Belgrade were united, under metropolitan Vikentije Jovanović, but already in 1739, by the Treaty of Belgrade, all Habsburg parts of Serbia were returned to the Ottoman rule, and thus under direct jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarchs in Peć.

During the Habsburg-Ottoman War (1737-1739), another uprising broke out against the Ottoman rule in various Serb-inhabited regions, headed by Serbian Patriarch Arsenije IV, who sided with the Habsburgs and left Peć for Belgrade. At the same time, the Second Migration of the Serbs was initiated, leading to further weakening of the remaining ecclesiastical structures in Serb lands under the Ottoman rule.

Frequent Serbian uprisings against the Ottomans and involvement of Serbian Patriarchs in anti-Ottoman activities, led to the political incrimination of the Patriarchate in the eyes of the Ottoman political elite. Instead of Serbian bishops, Ottoman authorities favored politically more reliable Greek bishops who were promoted to Serbian eparchies and even to the patriarchal throne in Peć, starting with Joannicius III, who was appointed in 1739. During the following years, and particularly after 1752, a series of internal conflicts arose among leading figures in the Serbian Patriarchate, resulting in constant fights between Serbian and Greek pretenders to the patriarchal throne. The Serbian Patriarchate of Peć collapsed in 1766, when it was abolished by the sultan Mustafa III (1757–1774). The entire territory of the Serbian Patriarchate under Ottoman rule was placed under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The throne of Peć was suppressed and eleven remaining Serbian eparchies were transferred to the throne of Constantinople. Those eparchies were: Eparchy of Belgrade, Eparchy of Dabar and Bosnia, Eparchy of Herzegovina, Eparchy of Kyustendil, Eparchy of Niš, Eparchy of Prizren, Eparchy of Raška, Eparchy of Samokov, Eparchy of Skopje, Eparchy of Užice, and Eparchy of Zvornik.