Review article
https://doi.org/10.53745/ccp.45.87.2
Importance of Religious Conversions of the Population in Zeta and Doclea from Catholicism to Orthodoxy (13th – 14th Century)
Saša Mrduljaš
orcid.org/0000-0002-1946-2243
; Institute of Social Science Ivo Pilar - Regional Center Split , Split, Croatia
Abstract
In respect of the historical and political formation of ethnic and national communities, as well as regarding the differences between Croatians, Bosnians, Serbs, and Montenegrins the religion played a paramount role. In this region, the first important religious differentiation happened with the division of Christianity to Catholicism and Orthodoxy. However, the initial borderline between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, the one from the time of Schism of 1054, did not last for a long time. Namely, the borderline was changed to the detriment of Catholicism after the former maritime duchies of Zachlumia, Travunija, and Doclea, in the area between rivers Neretva and Bojana, became a part of the Orthodox Serbian state at the end of the twelfth century. In order to religiously unify the country, and consequently stabilize the political position of the ruling Serbian Nemanjić dynasty, the authorities ordered a massive religious conversion of the Catholic population in Zachlumia and Doclea to Orthodoxy. The conversion was probably the most intensive in the period between the foundation of the autocephalous Serbian Church, i.e. Archbishopric of Žić and Peć, in 1219 and the end of the thirteenth century. Therefore, by the mid-fourteenth century and the end of the Serbian rule, this region of Zachlumia and Doclea became predominately Orthodox. In this article, besides the description of the political and religious circumstances that preceded and helped the conversion to Orthodoxy, the author tried to emphasize the far-reaching importance of this act to contemporary ethnic relations.
Keywords
Zachlumia; Travunija; Doclea; Catholicism; Orthodoxy; religious conversions.
Hrčak ID:
264712
URI
Publication date:
28.10.2021.
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