Општествено-политичките процеси и улогата на Охридската архиепископија низ ‎вековите

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the centuries-old history of the Ohrid Archbishopric, including its abolition and its restoration as the Macedonian Orthodox Church - Ohrid Archbishopric. Therefore, we will review the social and political processes of the times, especially regarding the context of neighboring Orthodox churches. The Ohrid region harbored the beginnings of the Orthodox Christian church and cultural revival in the 9th and 10th centuries. It was no accident that the city of Ohrid was chosen as the seat of the autocephalous Ohrid Archbishopric under the tutelage of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1019, on the foundations set by the Church of Samuel seated in Pela and Ohrid in the previous century. The archbishopric took up the role of spiritual authority in the social, educational, and cultural spheres in the following seven centuries. Its politically motivated abolition in 1767 had a significant impact on the life of the people that lived in this region and opened room for abuse by the newly imposed church jurisdictions, which created and promoted the foreign politics of neighboring churches. Hence, the restoration of the Ohrid Archbishopric as the Macedonian Orthodox Church was and still is of paramount importance. Christianity has been present in the Macedonian territories since the first centuries AD. Тhe first church communities were organized as bishoprics in the cities of Stobi, Heraclea, Bargala, Skupi, Lychnidos, and others. The Thessaloniki vicariate and the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima appear as more serious church organizations in these territories in the period before the arrival of the Slavs. The activity of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century on the territory of the ancient Bishopric of Lychnidos became thebasis for the Church of Samuel and the Archbishopric of Ohrid as its immediate successor, recognized as an autocephalous church by order of the three decrees of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. For more than seven centuries, the Archbishopric of Ohrid—which functioned in the Macedonian territories but also in the wider Balkan region all the way down to Sicily—was the highest institution in these territories, which strongly influenced not only the religious life but also the social and political life. During this period, it was headed by a number of prominent archbishops who left a strong mark on the entire Orthodoxy. Among them, Archbishop Jovan of Debar stands out as the first Archbishop of Ohrid and a member of the indigenous monasticism, and no less important are his successors of Byzantine origin, such as Archbishops Leo, Theophylact, Demetrius Homatian, Constantine Kabasilas, and others. These hierarchs, carefully selected for the Ohrid throne, made strong contributions to the life of the Church, emphasizing their architectural, pastoral, and theological skills and qualities. No less important was the role of the Ohrid Archbishopric and its archbishops in the Ottoman period, when—unlike other Balkan churches that were to be abolished—it continued to exist and act actively until its politically initiated abolition in 1767. During this period, Archbishop Prohor stands out as the spiritual coryphaeus of the archdiocese, and Archbishop Barlaam sealed his devotion to his church as a martyr. The last one, Arsenius II, who—like the first archbishop—was a Slav and a member of the domestic clergy, has been especially remembered in the memory of the archdiocese and will become the main motivation in the attempts to restore the Ohrid Archbishopric. In the period of the 19th and 20th centuries, when almost all the Balkan peoples managed to become nationally and spiritually independent, the Macedonians began their struggle for freedom. Rejecting the foreign jurisdictions that were imposed one after the other, the Macedonians managed to restore their ancient church as the Macedonian Orthodox Church in 1959, after the Second Clergy and People’s Synod in Ohrid (1958), when it first started to exist and act as an autonomous church under the Serbian Orthodox Church for less than a decade, and especially after the Third Clergy and People’s Synod in 1967, when, following the popular urge for full ecclesiastical independence, it was declared autocephalous. This unilateral decision of the Macedonian Orthodox Church will deteriorate the relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church and, after numerous negotiations and attempts to overcome this bilateral problem, as well as the involvement of third parties in it, the ecclesiastical issue of the Macedonian Orthodox Church still awaits its final resolution by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Macedonian Orthodox Church recently sent a request for resolving its autocephalous status to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. On January 13, 2020, the Patriarchate accepted its appellate role and took responsibility for resolving the autocephalous status of the Macedonian Orthodox Church as the legitimate successor to the ancient Ohrid Archbishopric. Instead of trying to create internal divisions as temporary solutions, it is expected to support the unity of the local Macedonian church in order to reach an evangelical, just, and dignified solution. The painful experience of political abuse of the church in the past explains why the entire Macedonian people resolutely oppose any attempts to impose external ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which is understood as a return to the past. The famous autocephalous church from Ohrid is of great importance and is a part of the history of many neighboring and distant nations, but naturally, first and above all, it is a church of the people who lived and still live in Ohrid today.