Neofit, Bishop of Zeta

Neofit (Anglicized: Neophyte; ; Serbian: Неофит; ) was the third bishop of Zeta. He succeeded German I, the second bishop of the Eparchy of Zeta, and preceded Jevstatije I, the hegumen of Hilandar and the future archbishop of Serbia.

Biography

Background Under the Nemanjić dynasty, Serbia was in a period of consolidation and expansion. King Stefan Uroš I (1243–1276) worked on strengthening the central authority and expanded Serbian territories while fostering cultural and religious development, including the construction of monasteries and churches. During this time, the Eparchy of Zeta was part of the Serbian Orthodox Church, established by Saint Sava in 1219, who was the first archbishop of Serbia, and he also appointed the first bishop of Zeta, Ilarion. It's important to note that Zeta was a crown land of the Serbian state under the Nemanjić Dynasty.

Reign Unfortunately, the details of Neofit's life are extremely scarce and unknown. He was appointed a bishop of Zeta in 1250, but Miodrag Purković was of the opinion that Neofit "was a bishop at least ten years earlier, that is, around 1253, if not even earlier," because Jevstatije I, as Vasilije Marković believes, was ordained around 1250.

Neofit was mentioned in the Iliovac nomocanon (krmčija), which was written by a certain Bogdan for the church of St. Michael in Ilovica (or Prevlaka). Neofit also built the church of St. Peter in Bogdašići in Boka Kotorska in 1269, as said on one of the two preserved inscriptions in the church, the other one being in Latin. In the catalogs, he was mentioned in the years 1250, 1261, 1262, 1269, and 1270. He also supposedly ordained Jevstatije I, the future sixth archbishop of Serbia, to be the bishop of Zeta. He might have died in the same year when his term ended, which was in 1270.