The Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia ( mk, Архиепископ Охридски и Македонски) is the title given to the

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

of the

Macedonian Orthodox Church The Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid (MOC-AO; mk, Македонска православна црква – Охридска архиепископија), or simply the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) or the Archdiocese o ...

. The Archbishop of

Ohrid Ohrid ( mk, Охрид ) is a city in North Macedonia and is the seat of the Ohrid Municipality. It is the largest city on Lake Ohrid and the List of cities in North Macedonia, eighth-largest city in the country, with the municipality recording ...

and Macedonia exercises jurisdiction over Orthodox members in the

Republic of North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...

and in

exarch An exarch (; from Ancient Greek ἔξαρχος ''exarchos'', meaning “leader”) was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical. In the late Roman Empire and ea ...

ates in the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

. The current archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia is

Stefan Veljanovski Stephen ( mk, Архиепископ Охридски и Македонски г.г. Стефан/''Arhiepiskop Ohirdski i Makedonski g.g. Stefan''; born 1 May 1955) is the fifth Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia, metropolitan of Skopje, pr ...

, who was elected in 1999 following the passing of Archbishop

Mihail Gogov Michael ( mk, Архиепископ Охридски и Македонски г.г. Михаил, translit=Arhiepiskop Ohridski i Makedonski g.g. Mihail) was the fourth Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia and once primate of the Macedonian Ortho ...

History

On 4 October 1958, the group of bishops in the

SR Macedonia The Socialist Republic of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка Република Македонија, Socijalistička Republika Makedonija), or SR Macedonia, commonly referred to as Socialist Macedonia or Yugoslav Macedonia, was ...

declared Dositej the "Archbishop of Ohrid, and Skopje, and Metropolitan of Macedonia" in

. Following the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

's pressure, the Bishops' Council of the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

retroactively recognized Dositej as the Metropolitan of Skopje on 19 June 1959. Despite the canonical order, Dositej and two other bishops established an "autonomous synod", which in order to preserve peace, was formalized by the Serbian Orthodox Assembly, after commitments that certain irregularities be removed. However, in an assembly in Ohrid on 19 July 1967, the autocephality of the Macedonian Orthodox Church was uncanonically proclaimed, the move not recognized by the Serbian Orthodox Church nor any other autocephalous church, leading to a schism. Dositej and the other bishops of the schismatic Orthodox Church in Macedonia were indicted in the Serbian Orthodox Church court. In the following years there were repeated negotiations on settlement, but without results. Dositej continued to be considered a schismatic until his death. On 16 May 2022, Archbishop Stefan became the first Archbishop of Ohrid to be canonically recognized since Dositej, owing to the resolution by the

Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr, Свети архијерејски синод Српске православне цркве, Sveti arhijerejski sinod Srpske pravoslavne crkve) serves by Church constitution as the executive bod ...

to accept the canonical status of the Macedonian Orthodox Church.

List of archbishops of Ohrid and Macedonia

References

External links

Official Website of the MOC
{{in lang, mk Macedonian Orthodox Church

Lists of popes, primates, and patriarchs

History

List of archbishops of Ohrid and Macedonia

See also

References

External links