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Orthodox Christianity in Serbia

How much you know about Orthodox Christianity? Many people do not even know that

it exists, or if they know about it, they think that orthodoxy is a religion that died out long time

ago. The Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic

Church. It counts over 300 million adherents. In this research paper, I will discuss how

Orthodox Christianity influence Serbian people. There are three major concepts that are

discussed in this paper: Christianization of the Serbs, establishing of the Serbian Church, and the

Serbian Church in modern time.

The Balkan peninsula is located in Easter Europe. The Balkans were inhabited by Slave

tribes between the 6th and 7th century. Two major groups of Slaves that migrated to the Balkans

are Bulgarians and Serbians. The Slave tribes practiced Slavic Paganism and worshiped gods

such as “Svarog”,” Perun”,” Vesna” etc. Although, the Serbian people have long abandoned the

pagan religion, some aspects of it are still present in our saying and tradition. In addition, a lot of

pagan rituals were adapted to Christianity, which made the transition from paganism to

Christianity easier. For example, in the old religion, every family had a God that was considered

their protector. Ones a year, they celebrated their God by worshiping and feasting. Today, the

Pagan Gods are replaced by Saints. Every Serbian family has a family Saint and ones a year

they prepare a celebration in the Saints honor. This event is called “Slava” which means

celebration. This tradition is specific to Serbian people and cannot be found in other Orthodox

nations such as Greeks or Russian. For example, my family celebrates St. Simon which is on

February 16.
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The Christianization of the Serbs was long and difficult process that lasted from the 7th

to the 9th century. According to Pavel Murdzhev, “The first encounters of the Serbian tribes with

Christianity, brought by missionaries ordained by Emperor Heraclius of Byzantium in the 7th

century, did not have lasting results” (par 1). The one of the reasons that the missionaries were to

teach the religion in foreign languages such as Latin and Greek which Serbian people did not

accepted. As a matter of fact, archaeological data do not point to the single church structure on

the territory on the present-day Serbia, that can be dated ether 7th or 8th centuries. The second

attempt occurred that in the 9th century had more success than the first one because a different

approach was used. Two brothers Cyril and Methodius were Byzantine Christian theologians and

missionaries. Their mission was to spread Christianity among Slavs. Knowing the fact that the

Slavic peoples did not have a written language, two brothers invented the first Slavonic alphabet,

or Old Church Slavonic. The two brothers and their students used this alphabet to translate the

Bible, the liturgical books, Holy Scripture etc. This helped expand Christianity among Slavic

people. Serbia became officially a Christian country by the baptism of Prince Mutimir in 891AD.

This put Serbia as a second Slavic country that was converted to Christianity. The first Slavic

country that converted to Christianity was Bulgaria in 869 AD. The Great Schism in the 11th

century split the Christianity into two divisions, West Roman Catholic Church, and Eastern

Orthodox Church. Serbia stayed under influence of Constantinople and become part of the

Eastern Orthodox Church.

The next very important stage of developing Orthodox Christianity in Serbia was

establishing the independent Serbian Church. After the Serbian Kingdom became independent

from the Byzantine Empire, the next important task for medieval country was to establish an

independent church which is recognized by Constantinople and Rome. The founder of Serbian
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Church and first patriarch of Serbia was Saint Sava. Originally Prince Rastko Nemanjic,the

youngest son of Serbian ruler Grand Zupan Stefan Nemanja. The young prince joined the order

of the Orthodox monks in Greece, and he dedicated his life to enlightening the people of Serbia.

According to Catholic News Agency:

St. Sava managed to persuade the Patriarch of the Greek/Byzantine Orthodox Church to

elevate him to the position of the first Serbian archbishop, thereby establishing the

independence of the archbishopric of the Serbian church in the year of 1219. Saint Sava

is celebrated as the founder of the independent Serbian Orthodox Church and as the

patron saint of education and medicine among Serbs. Since the 1830s, Saint Sava has

become the patron Saint of Serbian schools and students. (par 3)

This research provides information about St. Sava, and his achievements in establishing Serbian

Church and strengthening of Serbian Kingdom. In Serbian Church and among Serbian people St.

Sava is one of the Holiest Saints. He is recognized as a founder of Serbian Church, Serbian

school, and Serbian law. The stories and legends about St. Sava are the main reasons why

Serbian faith remained strong keep during a very hard period when the Ottoman Empire ruled in

Serbia.

During the time of the Ottoman tyranny, the

Serbian people gathered around the relics of

St. Sava to seek comfort and healing.

Fearing that uprising against Ottoman

Empire can arise form that place, on April

27, 1594 A.D, Ottoman Turks dug out the

bones and relics of St. Sava and burnt them

Fig 1 Temple of Saint Sava in Belgrade
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on the main square in Belgrade, hoping that using this tactic will destroy the faith in St. Sava and

Christianity. However, the effect was completely opposite. After this event, the Serbs made sure

to keep St. Sava in their thoughts and prayers, and the uprisings against the Ottoman Empire

started to become more frequent. The Temple of Saint Sava was built in the same place where

his remains were burned (See Fig 1). It is the largest Orthodox church in Serbia, one of the largest

Eastern Orthodox churches and it ranks among the largest churches in the world.

Through history the Serbian Orthodox Church was faced with many difficulties. Over

time, the Serbian Church suffer from many conquerors. For example, Ottoman Empire, Austro-

Hungarian Empire, and Nazi Germany. Furthermore, during Yugoslav era, new political system

of the country demonstrated negative attitude towards religion and religious communities.

According to Srđan Barišić, “Church-state separation, secularized education, ban on religious

training in public schools, as well as exclusion of the Theological Faculty from the Belgrade

University (1952) directly undermined the Church’s and religion’s economic, political and

cultural influence on the population”( Par 7). Nowadays, the church has an estimated population

of 15 million around globe. In Republic of Serbia almost 85 percent of population are Orthodox

Christian. Headquarters of Church are in Belgrade, Serbia. Furthermore, primary territory of

Serbian Orthodox Church is Serbia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Republic of

Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia. Because of constant migrations of Serbian people, Serbian

Orthodox Church possess churches, chapels, monasteries around the globe. For instance, in the

United States there are more 220 buildings that are in possession of Serbian Orthodox Church. In

Florida there are six Serbian Orthodox Church, some them are Saint Petka Serbian Orthodox,

Church in Orlando, and Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in St. Petersburg.
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To sum up, Serbia has been traditionally a Christian county since the Christianization of

Serbs in the 9th centuries. Furthermore, Serbian Orthodox Church is second oldest Slavic church,

established more than 800 years ago. Although, the Serbian Church experienced a lot of

difficulties and suffering through history, it managed to survive and rise again. Serbian people

are tightly connected with the church. Serbian Orthodox Church is not recognized just as religion

community in Serbia, but also as a keeper of heritage, tradition, and identity of Serbian people.

Works Cited

Murdzhev, Pavel. “Serbian Christianity.” ResearchGate, Nov. 2011, www. Researchgate.net

/publication/319556621_Serbian_Christianity. Accessed 10 August 2020.

“Sts. Cyril and Methodius.” Pravmir, 10 May 2005, www.pravmir.com/article_39.html.

Accessed 10 August 2020.

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Barišić, Srđan. “Serbian Orthodox Church and Yugoslavia.” YU Histrorjia, www. Yuhistorija .

com/culture_religion_txt01c2.html. Accessed 10 August 2020.