History of the Diocese of Lipljan

The beginning of Christian history in the region of present-day Kosovo and Metohija can be traced back to apostolic times when, according to tradition, the Holy Apostles Andrew and Paul visited the region, bringing with them the light of the Gospel. Here the first Christian martyrs also attested to their faith in Christ; especially important among them are Sts. Florus and Laurus, who were martyred in Ulpijana (Lipljan) at the end of the second century. Florus and Laurus were sculptors who learned their art from Proclus and Maxim, renowned sculptors of that time. At the end of the second century they arrived in the region of Illyricum and perished for Christ in Dardanian Ulpijana after toppling the statues of pagan gods. The remains of ancient Ulpiana where Florus and Laurus perished can still be seen today in the area between Gracanica and the town of Lipljan, which was named after the ancient Roman and Byzantine city.

Ulpiana is mentioned for the first time in the writings of Ptolomeus in the middle of the second century. Initially a small mining community at the beginning of the second century during the reign of the Emperor Trajan (98-118), it eventually gained the status of a Roman municipium and later also became the seat of the diocese. After the Edict of Milan of 313 and the reform of Church organization under Emperor Constantine and his heirs, this area fell under the jurisdiction of the Vicariate of Thessalonica, which is clear from the letter of Roman pope Innocent I to Salonica Vicar Bishop Ruf in 412, according to whom the Vicariate belongs to the region of Dardania (today's Kosovo and Metohija). By the middle of the fourth century, there is mention of Macedonius, Bishop of Ulpijana, who with the other bishops took part in the Council of Serdica (Sofia, Bulgaria) in 343. It is also recorded that the Emperor Theodosius visited the city in 380. In 535 a new Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima was founded near present-day Skopje, whose jurisdiction soon also included the bishopric of the city of Ulpiana.

On two occasions Ulpiana was taken and looted by the Goths, and it is assumed that the city was also considerably damaged during an earthquake in 518. The city was restored in its entirety during the rule of the Emperor Justinian, in the middle of the sixth century, and was then called Justiniana Secunda. However, peace did not last long in the region. At the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh centuries, Iustiana Prima and other Christian cities, including ancient Ulpijana, was conquered by the Slavs and the Avars. The Slavs increasingly populated the Balkans and formed their own districts, known as "Sclavinia", as far as the Peloponnesus. In the eastern part of the Balkans the Slavic tribes were christianized by Byzantium while in the west, especially in the littoral, the influence of the Roman Church was stronger. From the 9th to the 11th centuries the Slavic tribes created their first local dukedoms of which there were several by the emergence of the famous dynasty of the Nemanjices in the middle of the twelfth century.

The consolidation of Byzantine rule in the Balkans after the arrival of the Slavs and their mingling with the local population resulted in the dioceses which belonged to the Metropolitanate of Justiniana Prima being returned under the auspices of the Vicariate of Thessalonica, where they remained until 732 when Byzantine Emperor Leo III transferred the entire Balkan region under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Since then, the area of eastern Illyricum fell under the even stronger spiritual and cultural influence of Constantinople, the greatest intellectual and cultural center of the Christian world at that time.

During the period from 927-971 the region of present-day Kosovo and Metohija belonged to the Patriarchate of Bulgaria which was founded during the rule of Bulgarian Emperor Symeon (893-927). By conquering Bulgaria, Byzantine Emperor Basil II discontinued the Patriarchate of Bulgaria and formed the new autocephalous Ochrid Archdiocese which also included the territory of present-day Kosovo and Metohija (976-1018). The new Archdiocese was under the direct control of the Byzantine emperor who appointed candidates to the Ochrid throne, while the Patriarch of Constantinople consecrated the Ochrid Archbishop, who according to the rule had to be Greek. Theophylactus of Ochrid, a Greek from Constantinople, nostalgically pined for the capital city in the 10th century and attests that his flock is entirely Slavic. In Greek sources from the period Theophylact is called the Archbishop of Bulgaria.

The territory of the Prizren and Lipljan diocese became an integral part of the Serbian state in 1189 when the Grand Zupan Stefan Nemanja (1168-1196) conquered the Byzantine city of Prizren and significantly increased the size of the young Serbian state. In the Chilandar charter (1198) Simeon Nemanja says that he "restored his ancestral lands and fortified them" and that he "resurrected his collapsed ancestral lands and acquired more" and goes on to state what he acquired "from the littoral", "from the Arbanasi" and "from the Greek lands". The land of the Arbanasi for him is only Pilot (the region of present-day northern Albania), while the Kosovo area here is called "Lab with Lipljan" and classified under the category of "Greek lands".

At the beginning of the 13th century the Bulgarians again occupied this region and soon thereafter it was again assumed by the Byzantines. Finally in 1214 during the reign of Serbian King Stefan the First-Crowned (1196-1227), the brother of St. Sava, the first Serbian Archbishop, the region of present-day Kosovo and Metohija finally joined the independent Serbian Church and territorially remained a part of the medieval Serbian state until the arrival of the Turks in 1455.

Since the founding of the Ochrid Archbishopric, Rascia (Raska) or Serbia was under the church administration of a Greek bishop seated in Ras (1020) (Novi Pazar today). On the territory of present-day Kosovo and Metohija there were two dioceses, one seated in Prizren and one in Lipljan, also with Greek bishops. With the founding of the Serbian Autocephalous Archdiocese (1219) and the appointment of Serbian bishops major changes resulted in the organization of the Church throughout the entire region from the Adriatic to Morava. The framework of the new state territory, which corresponded to the district of the new autocephalous Church, included the Ochrid dioceses - not only Ras but also Prizren and Lipljan, as well as a part of Nis (ancient Naisus) and the Upper Morava region was taken from the Skopje diocese, which remained under a Greek bishop. The founder of the independent Serbian Church, Archbishop Sava (1219-1236), kept the three Ochrid dioceses - Ras, Lipljan and Prizren - and appointed Serbian bishops to head them but also founded new dioceses: Zica, Toplica, Morava, Hvostno, Budimlje, Zeta and Hum. Only the last two were located in regions under significant church influence from Rome even though the territories had been inhabited since their arrival in the Balkans by Serbs who in the coastal regions were christianized primarily by Orthodox missionaries from Rome. All other newly founded Serbian dioceses were located in the nucleus of Serbian districts; two former Ochrid dioceses, Prizren and Lipljan, although located on the periphery of the state at that time, were exclusively on Serb land and so it is understandable that Stefan Nemanja referred to them as "the land of his ancestors". With the appointment of Serbian bishops and the preaching of the word of God in the vernacular the Serbian people was finally enlightened by the light of the Gospel.

The second half of the 13th century and the first half of the 14th century are the golden age of Serbian spirituality and culture in the region of present-day Kosovo and Metohija. This was also a period of grand construction projects and the building of numerous churches and monasteries, among them Bogorodica Levis (the Holy Virgin of Levis) in Prizren (destroyed on March 17-18, 2004), the Pec Patriarchate, Banjos, Gracanica and Visoki Decani. The Serbian nobles also built smaller endowments, some of which survived to the present age.

The monastery of Gracanica was built by Serbian King Milutin (1314-1315) on Gracanica Creek on the foundations of an old Byzantine basilica from the 11th century. As early as the 14th century the seat of the Diocese of Lipljan was transferred to Gracanica and is sometimes even referred to as "the Diocese of Gracanica". Gracanica is later also mentioned as the seat of Gracanica and Novo Brdo bishops and metropolitans until 1455 and conquest by the Turks. The Diocese of Lipljan, therefore, began to fade from church records during the 14th century and its territory became a part of the other dioceses. 

Old Lipljan church of the Holy Mother of God and new cathedral dedicated to Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus (Click on photo to enlarge)