Archdiocese of Ohrid

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The archbishopric around 1020

The term Archdiocese of Ohrid describes several ecclesiastical archdioceses in different epochs. The name refers to the North Macedonian city ​​of Ohrid .

Historical archdiocese

The term "Archdiocese of Ohrid" referred to a historical Orthodox archdiocese that existed from the 9th to the 18th century in the area between the Danube and Thessaly . It included dioceses from Macedonia , Thessaly, Epirus , Albania , Duklja , Travunia , Zachlumien , Raszien , Bosnia , Syrmien and Moesia . Founded during the First Bulgarian Empire in the 9th century, it was recognized by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II in 1018 as an autocephalous archbishopric. In 1767 it lost its 700-year autocephaly and was dissolved. Current churches also refer to the tradition of this archdiocese.

history

There was already a diocese on Lake Ohrid in ancient times . The bishop resided in Lychnidos , the predecessor town of Ohrid . This bishopric perished at the latest with the conquest of the Slavs in the Balkans in the 6th century, but possibly already as a result of the devastating earthquake on May 29 and 30, 526, after which no more information about Lychnidos is available.

Ohrid is mentioned for the first time in 879/880 in the acts of the Fourth Council of Constantinople as the bishopric of a Bulgarian church . Metropolitan Gavril Ohridski attended this council in 879. At that time the area belonged to the Bulgarian Empire. At the end of the 9th century, Kliment von Ohrid and Naum Ohridski worked in the region. They turned Ohrid into an ecclesiastical and cultural center of the Orthodox Southern Slavs . The Ohrid School produced much of the Old Church Slavonic literature.

In 971 Byzantium conquered the east of the Bulgarian Empire. What was left was a western Bulgarian state , which was essentially limited to Macedonia and large parts of what is now Albania. The center of this empire was around 1000 in the area of ​​Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa. The seat of the Bulgarian patriarch was moved from the old capital Preslav to Ohrid. Around 976, Tsar Samuil raised the archbishopric of Ohrid to a patriarchate .

In 1018 the Byzantine emperor Basil II conquered the rest of the Samuil Empire. He organized it as the theme of Bulgaria , which had its seat in Skopje. The Bulgarian patriarchate was abolished, in its place came the autocephalous "Archdiocese of Ohrid and all of Bulgaria" , also known as the great eparchy or great western eparchy , whose jurisdiction was set at 31 eparchies in a total of three privilege deeds by Basil II . The archbishopric remained independent from the Byzantine imperial church , but the archbishops were appointed by the Byzantine emperor. The first Archbishop appointed by the emperor, John I Debranin (1018-1037), was still a Slav , after which the Byzantine emperors always appointed Greek priests from the clergy of Hagia Sofia as archbishops. The leadership of the archdiocese was Hellenized , while the Slavic character of the archdiocese was maintained by the lower clergy.

Ohrid remained an important archdiocese for almost 200 years. Archbishop Leo was co-author of a circular by Michael I Kerullarios ' in 1054 , which served as the occasion for the separation from the Latin Church . Theophylact of Ohrid successfully defended the autocephaly of the archdiocese against the claims of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1078. In 1157 the Archbishop John Adrian IV Komnenus used the title Archbishop of Justiniana Prima and Bulgaria . After changes to the jurisdiction in the Comnen period , the archbishopric comprised 25 dioceses. After 1185 it lost 4 bishoprics to the Second Bulgarian Empire .

When the Byzantine Empire fell apart as a result of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 , Ohrid came under the rule of the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan . In 1215 it fell to the Despotate of Epirus , and in 1259 to the Empire of Nikaia . From 1219 3 dioceses were transferred to the archbishopric of the Serbian and primory lands founded under Sava of Serbia . In 1235, the Patriarchate of Tarnovo was constituted in the Second Bulgarian Empire . In the course of the decline of the Byzantine Empire, the archbishopric shrank sharply in the following centuries, at the end of the 13th century it comprised only 11 bishoprics. After the Serbian conquest of Macedonia, Stefan Dušan respected the autocephalous status of the archbishopric under the Patriarchate of Peć . During this period the archbishops were appointed by the Serbian tsars.

Due to their initial loyalty to the Ottoman rulers, the archbishops of Ohrid were able to expand their jurisdiction in the 16th century. Around 1520 the Patriarchate of Peć was dissolved and its dioceses attached to the Archdiocese of Ohrid; however, the Patriarchate of Peć was renewed again in 1557 under Sokollu Mehmed Pascha . Until its dissolution in 1767, the Archdiocese of Ohrid now comprised 9 metropolises and 5 dioceses. The following centuries were marked by the purchase of offices , with 19 archbishops in office from 1650 to 1700 alone. The means necessary for the purchase of offices were collected from the believers. In the 16th and 17th centuries the archbishopric sought support from Vienna and Rome , and in the first half of the 17th century 4 archbishops entered into a union with the Roman Catholic Church. In the 18th century the archbishopric was temporarily responsible for the Orthodox communities of Lower Italy, Venice and Dalmatia . In retaliation for the support of insurgents during the Turkish Wars , the Archdiocese of Ohrid and the Patriarchate of Peć were dissolved in 1767 and 1776, respectively, and their dioceses left to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In order to wipe out any trace of the archbishopric, the region around Ohrid was assigned to the diocese of Prespa .

In 1870, Ohrid was placed under the newly formed Bulgarian Exarchate . After the First World War, the eparchy became part of the Serbian Church. The Archdiocese of Ohrid was re-established in 1958, embodied by the Metropolitan of Skopje , who was in canonical union with the Serbian Patriarch. The Metropolitan is known as "Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia" head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church , which in 1967 unilaterally proclaimed autocephaly is currently recognized by any other Orthodox church. In 2002, the Serbian Orthodox Church established an autonomous Archdiocese of Ohrid, recognized as canonically.

Today's archdioceses

Macedonian Orthodox Archdiocese

In 1958, an archdiocese of Ohrid was re-established, which has been a metropolitan diocese of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, which is not canonically recognized since 1967.

Serbian Orthodox Autonomous Archdiocese

The term Archdiocese of Ohrid is used to describe an autonomous archdiocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the territory of North Macedonia, which was established in 2002 . In contrast to the Macedonian Orthodox Church, this is recognized by other Orthodox churches as the canonically legitimate Orthodox Church in the territory of North Macedonia. The responsible Serbian Metropolitan of Ohrid resides in Skopje .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Günter Prinzing : Ohrid . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , Sp. 1376-1380.
  2. ↑ Ivan Snegarov: История на Охридската Архиепископия. Sofia 1924, p. 62.
  3. ^ Hösch / Nehring / Sundhaussen: Lexicon on the history of Southeast Europe. 2004, p. 496.
  4. ^ Hösch / Nehring / Sundhaussen: Lexicon on the history of Southeast Europe. 2004, p. 485.