Povijesni prilozi, Vol. 23 No. 27, 2004.
Original scientific paper
Catholic-Orthodox contentions over church union and a Greek Catholic Marča diocese during 1737 and 1738
Zlatko Kudelić
; Croatian Institute of History
Abstract
In this work the author analyses the reasons why Orthodox inhabitants of the Croatian military border (krajišnici) of the generalate of Varaždin expelled a Greek Catholic bishop of Marča, Silvester Ivanović, from the monastery in Marča and arguments presented by representatives of Catholic and Orthodox Church regarding the association of Greek Catholic diocese with Catholic or Orthodox Church. In regards to historical interpretations of Marča diocese that the opposing parties gave, the author concluded that the Orthodox frontiersmen and clergy demonstrated a constant presence of Orthodox episcopes in Marča at the end of the XVI century that freely maintained contact with Orthodox patriarchs of Peć as church superiors, that in the line with decisions made by previous Habsburg rulers they were free to profess Orthodoxy and that the church and monastery in Marča were built as the centre of Orthodox episcopacy. Catholic representatives and krajišnici indicated that the Diocese of Marča was founded as Greek Catholic in 1611 when a Greek Catholic bishop Simeon Vratanja was consecrated in Rome and took it upon himself to induct krajišnici into a union with the Catholic Church and cut off all connections with the patriarchs of Peć, just as his successors did in their appointment to the See of Marča diocese even though some of them did not follow through these commitments in the period between 1630 and 1670. The author emphasized that the Viennese Court, having received several different reports on the history of Marča, accepted the arguments made by Catholic representatives and decided that it belongs to the Catholic Church, or to the Greek Catholics of Vojna Krajina, from whom the Orthodox krajišnici wrongfully took it away. Following that decision, Orthodox krajišnici attacked and burned down the church and monastery in Marča. The authorities made an Orthodox episcope of Lepavina-Severin, Simeon Filipović, a suspect for organizing the attack on Marča and opened an investigation against him that was ended by his death in 1743. The new residence of Greek Catholic bishops of Marča became Pribić where the Greek Catholic bishop of Marča, Teofil Pašić (1738 – 1746) resided but even with the support from church and military authorities due to the resistance from Orthodox krajišnici, he did not succeed in strengthening the power of the Church in any of the generalates, and the diocese was taken away from him for breaking church discipline and he spent the rest of his life in a Basilian monastery in Lavov.
Keywords
the Habsburg Monarchy; Military Border; Vlachs; Zagreb diocese; Marča diocese; Catholic Church; Orthodox Church; church union; Patriarchate of Peć; Archbishopric of Karlovci
Hrčak ID:
28024
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2004.
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