Archbishopric of Ohrid

The Archbishopric of Ohrid was an autonomous Orthodox Church under the tutelage of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople between 1019 and 1767. It was established following the Byzantine conquest of the First Bulgarian Empire in 1018 by lowering the rank of the autocephalous Bulgarian Patriarchate due to its subjugation to Constantinople.

In 972, Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces conquered and burned down Preslav, capturing the Bulgarian Tsar Boris II. The Patriarch Damyan managed to escape, initially to Sredets. In the coming years, the residence of the Bulgarian patriarchs remained closely connected to the developments in the war between the next Bulgarian monarchist dynasty, the Comitopuli, and the Byzantine Empire. Thus, the next Patriarch German resided consecutively in Moglen, Voden and Prespa. Around 990, the last patriarch, Philip, moved to Ohrid, which also became the permanent seat of the Patriarchate.

The Archbishopric of Ohrid was a Byzantine resurrection of the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima. After 1018 it was the church of the Byzantine Slavs; Bulgarians and Serbs. The Archibishopric was seated in Ohrid, in the Byzantine theme of Bulgaria, and was established in 1019 by lowering the rank of the previously Bulgarian Patriarchate and its subjugation to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Although the first appointed archbishop (John of Debar) was a Bulgarian, his successors, as well as the whole higher clergy, were invariably Greeks, the most famous of them being Saint Theophylact of Bulgaria (1078–1107). The Archbishops were chosen from among the monks in Constantinople. Adrian Komnenos, under his monastic name of John, (1143–1160) was the cousin of Emperor John II Komnenos, and was the first Archbishop who held the title of Archbishop of Justniana Prima. The later archbishop John V Kamateros (1183–1216) was a former imperial clerk.

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