Patriarch of Serbia

This is a list of the Archbishops and Patriarchs of Peć and the Serbs from the creation of the church as an archdiocese in 1219 to today's Patriarchate. The list includes all the Archbishops and Patriarchs that led the Serbian Orthodox community under Patriarchate of Peć. Today, the church is unified under a Patrirach who is known officially as "Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci, and Serbian Patriarch". The current holder of the title is His Holiness, Patriarch Pavle.

The Peć episcopal see was founded in 1219 by St. Sava under the autocephaly of the Patriarchs of Constantinople. In 1346 it unilaterally declared itself as a patriarchate in Peć. This was only recognized by Constantinople in 1379.

After the Ottoman conquest of Serbia in 1459, the Patriarchate gradually lost its importance. At times the church was forced by the Porte to install Greeks to the office. From 1766–1920 the patriarchate was abolished and all ecclesiastical jurisdiction was placed under the Greek Orthodox Church. A metropolitan see was maintained in Belgrade from 1766 afterwards.

In 1920, the church was reunified and the Patriarchy was reestablished.

Archbishops of the Autocephalous Orthodox Archdiocese of Peć, 1219–1346

=Second Patriarchate of Peć, 1557–1766=

ee also

*Eastern Orthodoxy
*Eparchy of Križevci
*Patriarchs
*Serbia
*Yugoslavia

External links

* [http://www.spc.yu/Istorijat/history.html Serbian Orthodox Church, history] at spc.yu
* [http://www.sumadinac.de/arhijereji/arhijereji.html Pages on most of the Serbian Patriarchs] ("in Serbian")
* [http://www.kosovo.net/socheng2.html Kosovo.com: another list of Serbian Patriarchs]
* [http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/resources/hierarchs/serbia.htm Hierarchical Succession of the Patriarchal See of Serbia] from the Orthodox Research Institute