Mihailo Jovanović

Mihailo Jovanović (; 19 August 1826 – 17 February 1898) was the Metropolitan of Belgrade from 1859 to 1881 and again from 1889 until his death in 1898.

Mihailo's time in office was marked with modernization in church management and in the education of priests. During his tenure, the Metropolitanate of Belgrade was awarded autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, following the Serbian–Turkish Wars of 1876 to 1878.

Politically, Mihailo was a convinced Russophile and maintained numerous close ties with Pan-Slavic circles in the Austrian and Russian Empires. For this reason, he came into conflict with the Austrophile Prince Milan Obrenović, sparking the so-called Church Question which eventually led to a drastic cooling of relations between Serbia and Russia. Mihailo was removed from his position of Metropolitan in 1881, living in exile in Bulgaria and Russia from 1883 to 1889, only returning after Milan Obrenović had abdicated.

His full title was the Archbishop of Belgrade and Metropolitan of Serbia.

Early life and education Mihailo was born Miloje Jovanović on 19 August 1826 in Sokobanja to Milovan and Marija Jovanović. He attended elementary school at his hometown, and studied gymnasium in Zaječar and Negotin. In Negotin, he studied under Dositej Novaković. He enrolled at the Belgrade Seminary in 1842 and graduated in 1846.

At the initiative of Metropolitan Petar Jovanović, he went to Kiev in July 1846 with six friends under the leadership of Sima Milutinović Sarajlija. There, he graduated from the Theological Academy with a master's degree. He was tonsured a monk on 29 March 1853 in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and was given the name Mihailo. He became a hierodeacon on 12 April and a hieromonk on 16 April. After completing his studies, Mihailo stayed in Russia for almost another year, where he visited Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Optina Monastery near Kozelsk and studied the life of Russian monks.

In June 1854, Mihailo returned to Serbia and became a teacher at the Seminary, where he stayed until October when he became archimandrite of Studenica Monastery. On 14 October 1854 he was ordained Bishop of Šabac.

Metropolitan of Belgrade On 25 July 1859, he succeeded Petar Jovanović as the Metropolitan of Belgrade. Petar had defected to Austria because of political differences.

Mihailo's time in office was marked with modernization in church management and in the education of priests. He oversaw a new church law on 30 September 1862 which modernized the ecclesiastical apparatus, and on 27 September 1863 a law was passed which modernized teaching at the seminary. In 1873, a separate department was opened at the Belgrade seminary for the training of priests that were to proselytize in areas that were still part of the Ottoman Empire. According to the law of 11 January 1896, training in the seminary lasted nine years.

Mihailo also laid the foundations of the discipline of theology in Serbia. He was particularly interested in dogmatic problems and practical theology. His works on Serbian church history, “Pravoslavna srbska crkva u Knjažestvu Srbii” (The Orthodox Serbian Church in the Principality of Serbia, 1874) and “Pravoslavna crkva u Kraljevini Srbiji” (The Orthodox Church in the Kingdom of Serbia, 1895) are also of interest. Within the church, he separated administration from the judiciary, improved the training of clergy and promoted the monasteries.

Mihailo was a convinced Russophile and maintained numerous close ties with Pan-Slavic circles in the Russian Empire, and gathered various figures interested in the unification of the South Slavs, including Josip Juraj Strossmayer, but also many Bosnian Franciscans, which made him very unpopular in Vienna. During the Herzegovina Uprising of 1875, Mihailo helped the insurgents materially and politically, and Pan-Slavic committees sent their help for the insurgents through him.

During the Serbian–Turkish War of 1878, Mihailo advocated for the autocephaly of the Metropolitanate of Belgrade, as well as the Bulgarian Exarchate, arguing that an additional autonomous metropolitanate should be created from Ottoman areas under the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć before 1766, including the Eparchy of Kyustendil, also claimed by the Bulgarian Exarchate. Between the Treaty of San Stefano and the Congress of Berlin, Mihailo advocated for the autocephaly of Bosnian eparchies and the autonomy of eparchies that were to stay under Ottoman rule. On 20 October 1879, the Metropolitanate of Belgrade gained autocephaly in agreement with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

He was an honorary member of two universities in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, from 1869 and 1871, respectively. Mihailo was also active in fighting for humanitarian causes. In 1862, he became the president of the Society for the Freedom of the African Slaves. In February 1876, he became the first president of Red Cross of Serbia.

Dismissal and exile Mihailo was active in Serbian politics and sympathized with the Liberal Party of Jovan Ristić. He sharply condemned the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1878, as well as the Austrophile policies of Prince Milan Obrenović. Another point of contention was Mihailo's refusal to divorce Milan from his wife, Princess Natalie. Because of all this, he fell out of favor with Milan Piroćanac's Progressive government and was deposed on 18 October 1881 under the new law on taxes, which the then Minister of Education Stojan Novaković had enacted and which also affected the Church. The law was amended in 1882, allowing the government to pack the synod with its own lay delegates, whereby the state had effectively taken over the church, reducing it to something akin to a state agency.

Mihailo remained the Metropolitan of Belgrade until his death in 1898, during the reign of Milan's son King Alexander I. He was buried in Belgrade's Cathedral, the Saborna crkva.

Gallery

Works Metropolitan Mihailo authored publications about church history: Pravoslavna crkva u Kneževini Srbiji (Orthodox Church in the Principality of Serbia, published in 1874) Pravoslavna crkva u Kraljevini Srbiji (Orthodox Church in the Kingdom of Serbia, published in 1895)