Jovan Vraniškovski

Jovan VI. Ohrid ( Macedonian Јован Охридски * 28. February 1966 in Bitola , SR Macedonia , SFR Yugoslavia born), Zoran Vraniškovski (. maz Зоран Вранишковски) known as Archbishop Jovan VI of Ohrid is (maz Јован Вранишковски.) a Macedonian minister, head of the autonomous Orthodox Archdiocese of Ohrid .

Life

Zoran was born on February 28, 1966 in Bitola, Macedonia in the family of Argir and Galena Vraniškovski. He attended the local elementary school and mathematics high school in the city. He did his military service in Sarajevo. Between 1985 and 1990 Zoran completed an urban planning degree at the University of Sarajevo . From 1990 he studied theology at the Theological Faculty of the University of Belgrade. At the same time he worked as a civil engineer at the Bitola eparchy. In 1995 Zoran completed his theology degree, but in the same year he enrolled for a master's degree in theology at the same university. From 2008 he worked on his doctoral thesis entitled: "The Unification of the Church and Contemporary Church Problems".

On February 7, 1998, Zoran was ordained a Macedonian Orthodox monk, giving up his secular name and taking the spiritual name Jovan. A day later he was ordained a priest and on July 19 of the same year he was ordained Bishop of Dremwtitsa . In the following time he was vicar of the eparchy "Prespa-Pleganoja" and led the renovation of the church of St. Dimitrius in Bitola. In 2000 Jovan became bishop of the eparchy "Veles and Povadarski", whereupon he took the nickname Veleski (maz. Велешки, dt. Of Veles ).

Split in the Macedonian Orthodox Church

In 2002, Jovan made his eparchy subject to the Serbian Orthodox Church . In the same year he was appointed Archbishop of Ohrid at a church council of the Serbian Church. For this, Metropolitan Jovan was excommunicated from the Macedonian Church in 2003. Jovan was followed by four more monasteries with 30 monks in 2004.

An offer was made by the Serbian side to grant the Macedonian Church autonomy within the Belgrade Patriarchate. This proposal split the Macedonian bishops into two camps: Petar of Australia and New Zealand, Timotej of Kičevo, Naum of Strumica and Jovan of Povardarie were in favor; Kiril von Polog and Kumanovo, Agatangel von Bregalnica and Gorazd, Metropolitan for Western Europe, were against it. The Macedonian head of the church, Archbishop Stefan von Ohrid, was neutral. The majority of Macedonian believers are in favor of autocephaly .

At first the Macedonian government did not interfere in the church disputes, with the arrest of Bishop Jovan in Bitola on January 11, 2004 (on suspicion of violating the property rights of churches and monasteries), the canonical conflict almost took on a political dimension. He was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for embezzling the equivalent of € 250,000.

In 2005 the Serbian Patriarch Pavle Jovan appointed Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje and proclaimed the autonomy of the Archdiocese of Ohrid with Jovan as Chairman and the Holy Synod of Bishops.

On November 17, 2010, Jovan was arrested and placed under house arrest at the Bulgarian-Serbian border crossing in Kalotina on the basis of an international arrest warrant from Macedonia . In the first instance, the Bulgarian court ruled in favor of extradition. Vraniškovski's lawyers appealed and the Sofia District Court ruled on January 4, 2011 against the first instance decision without the possibility of appeal and lifted the house arrest. This led to indignation in the Republic of Macedonia and the Bulgarian court was accused of having made a decision under political pressure and of cultivating Greater Bulgarian ambitions. In the second trial, Vraniškovski's lawyers argued that the trials in which he was convicted in Macedonia were politically motivated. There were also two Macedonian clergy in the courtroom who testified that Vraniškovski had never had any problems with the law until 2004 and that the reprisals against him in Macedonia were politically motivated.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The agreement with the signatures of the priests from the Metropolis of Veles for entrance into liturgical and canonical unity with the Serbian orthodox church
2. ↑ Summon by the Patriarch Pavle (PDF; 59 kB)
3. ↑ Jovan Vraniškovski, head of the autonomous archbishopric of Ohrid, was arrested at the Kalotina border crossing , Dnevnik , November 17, 2010
4. ↑ ^{a b} The court did not hand over the Macedonian state to the Archbishop of Ohrid (Bulgarian) , www.mediapool.bg, January 4, 2011

Web links

• Biography of Jovan VI. on the side of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Ohrid
• Amnesty International sees Jovan Vraniskovski a prisoner of conscience
• Macedonian perspective on the release of Vraniškovskis by Bulgaria
• Press reports about Vraniškovski (Macedonian)