Serbian Patriarch Pavle I ( sr-cyr, Српски патријарх Павле I; 1527–1541) was the
Archbishop of Peć and self-proclaimed
Serbian Patriarch from around 1530 to 1541. He tried to end the long period of vacancy of the
Serbian Patriarchal Throne, with limited and temporary success.
Biography
As the
Metropolitan of Smederevo, he managed with the help of notable Serbs and some Ottoman officials to take control over the Archiepiscopal see of
Peć
Peja (Definiteness, Indefinite Albanian language, Albanian Albanian morphology#Nouns (declension), form: ''Pejë'' ) or Peć ( sr-Cyrl, Пећ ) is the fourth largest List of cities and towns in Kosovo, city of Kosovo and seat of Peja Municipali ...
, and worked toward its renewed
autocephaly
Autocephaly (; from el, αὐτοκεφαλία, meaning "property of being self-headed") is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. The term is primarily used in Eastern O ...
, recreating the
Serbian Patriarchate of Peć that had been vacant since 1463 and formally abolished by the Ottomans, who transferred all Serbian eparchies to the jurisdiction of the
Archbishopric of Ohrid.
Most of the higher clergy, however, supported the Archbishop
Prohor of Ohrid, and on the Church assembly on 13 March 1532
anathematized Pavle and his followers. After some time Pavle made peace with Prohor, and recognized his supreme jurisdiction, but later began a more active struggle for removing Peć from the jurisdiction of Ohrid. He successfully had Prohor and his closest people imprisoned by the Ottoman government, and had unreliable bishops removed and began reorganizing Serbian Orthodox Church, proclaiming himself
Serbian Patriarch.
Prohor managed to free himself and after talks with the Sultan was reappointed as Archbishopric of Ohrid. Upon Prohor's return, an assembly was summoned on 20 July 1541 which stripped Pavle of his titles and priesthood, along with bishop Neofit of
Lesnovo, Teofan of
Zvornik and Pahomije of
Kratovo, all of whom Pavle had appointed – those who still recognized them as their bishops were to be anathematized. After this, Pavle went into exile.
References
Sources
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External links
Official site of the Serbian Orthodox Church: Serbian Archbishops and Patriarchs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavle, Archbishop of Pec
16th-century Serbian people
16th-century Eastern Orthodox bishops
16th-century Eastern Orthodox archbishops
Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church
People from Smederevo
Serbs from the Ottoman Empire
Clergy removed from office
16th-century people from the Ottoman Empire