The diocese of Zahum-hercegovina
"I was dumb with silence,
I held my peace, even
from good; and my
sorrow was stirred."
(Psalm 39:2)
The Diocese of
Zahum–Hercegovina was founded by Saint Sava in 1219, while the autocephalous
Serbian Archdiocese was first being organized. The Diocese of Hum, as it was
initially named, had its See in Ston, centered on the Church dedicated to the
Most Holy Theotokos. The first Bishop of Hum was Ilarion, and among his
well-known successors were Sava II (son of King Stefan the First-Crowned, and
whose secular name was Predislav) till 1264; then Bishop Jevstatije (circa
1300), Jovan (circa 1305); and Danilo (1316–1324), the subsequent Serbian
Archbishop. During his reign, the Ban of Bosnia, taking advantage of conflicts
between King Stefan of Decani and Prince Constantine over the throne, took Hum;
Danilo was forced to flee, and establish the See of his Diocese in the
Monastery of Saint Peter (most probably the one on the Lim River, an endowment
of Nemanja’s brother Miroslav). Danilo was succeeded by Bishop Stefan.
Having been incorporated
into the Bosnian state during the rule of King Tvrtko I, Monastery Mileseva
became the See of the Bishops of Hum and Bosnia. Since the 15th century, when
the title "Herceg of Saint Sava" was conferred upon Stepan Vukcic
Kosaca and Hum was renamed Hercegovina, that Diocese was also named the Diocese
of Hercegovina. Two Bishops of Hum (Mileseva) are known of before the fall of
Hercegovina to the Turks: the first being the one who crowned King Tvrtko I in
Mileseva in 1337; the second was David, whose name is mentioned in 1466 and
1471.
Following the fall of
Hercegovina under Turkish rule, the See was frequently moved, finally to settle
in Monastery Tvrdos near Trebinje. From that period the following Bishops of
the Diocese of Zahum-Hercegovina are known: Jovan (1508–1513) and Visarion,
restorers of Monastery Tvrdos (1508); then Marko (1524), Maksim (1532), Nikanor
(1546), Antonije (1570), Savatije (1573–1585), Visarion (1592), Silvestar
(1602) and Leontije (1605–1611).
Subsequent events caused
the division of the Diocese into two: the Diocese of Trebinje, with its See in
Monastery Tvrdos; and the Diocese of Mileseva, frequently referred to as the
Diocese of Polhercegovina or of Peter, after Saint Peter’s Monastery on the Lim
River, where its See was even under the Turks located for some time. When the
Turks turned the Monastery of Saint Peter into a mosque, in the second half of
the 17th century, the See was moved across the Tara to Niksic, formally the
town of Onogost.
The troubled past of that
area influenced the changing of the borders of those Dioceses, unified in the
18th century after the Peace Treaty of Belgrade in 1739. The Bishops of
Hercegovina, or Trebinje, whose names are recorded in that per
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