METROPOLITAN LEONTIJE RADULOVIĆ (1835–1888) – THE FIRST SERBIAN METROPOLITAN OF HERZEGOVINA SINCE THE ABOLITION OF THE PATRIARCHY OF PEĆ IN 1766.

Abstract

After the abolition of the Patriarchy of Peć in 1766, Greek bishops came to Herzegovina, as well as to other Serbian areas. Their service was mostly extremely negative and among the common people they were remembered in the worst light. They paid a lucrative fee to the Patriarch of Constantinople for their arrival at the positions, and then compensated for those funds by taking from the ordinary poor of the country. In the Zahumlje-Herzegovina Metropolitanate, ten Greek bishops were replaced in the period 1766-1889, until the arrival of the first Serbs in this chair. The subject of this paper is precisely the life, arrival and service of a prominent Herzegovinian Metropolitan, Leontije Radulovic (1888), the first Serb to hold the seat of the Metropolitanate of Herzegovina since the abolition of the Patriarchy of Peć. His difficult and martyred life was only a prelude to his arrival at this famous position. In the paper, we dealt in detail with his life path and service, as well as partially with the history of the Metropolitanate from its foundation to his service. The work was created on the basis of relevant historical literature, sources and newspapers and aims to bring closer the significance of the arrival of the Serbs to the seat of the Metropolitanate of Herzegovina for the Orthodox people of Herzegovina itself, as well as to preserve the memory of this important Serbian and Herzegovinian archbishop.