Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III Српски патријарх Арсеније III |
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Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch | |
Church | Serbian Orthodox Church |
Installed | 1674 |
Term ended | 1690 (1706) |
Predecessor | Maksim I |
Successor | Kalinik I |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Arsenije Crnojević |
Born | 1633 Bajice near Cetinje, Ottoman Empire (modern Montenegro) |
Died | 27 October 1706 Vienna, Habsburg Monarchy (modern Austria) |
Coat of arms |
Arsenije III Čarnojević (Serbian Cyrillic: Арсеније III Чарнојевић, 1633 – 27 October 1706) was the Archbishop of Peć and Serbian Patriarch from 1674 to his death in 1706. In 1690, he led a large migration of Serbs from Ottoman Serbia into the Habsburg Monarchy, and this is when the Ottomans stopped recognising him, creating a rival patriarchate. He is also remembered for attempting to get a publishing licence from the Habsburg authorities to print Serbian books but to no avail.
Arsenije, surnamed Crnojević (Црнојевић) or Črnojević (Чрнојевић), spelled in Church Slavonic as "Арсенїй Чарноевичь" (sr. Чарнојевић/Čarnojević), was a descendant of the medieval Crnojević family, which had ruled Zeta until 1499. He was born in Bajice, hamlet of Cetinje (modern Montenegro), a part of the Balkan never captured by Ottoman Empire and is sometimes referred to as Arsenije the Montenegrin. As a young boy, Arsenije came to live in the Patriarchal Monastery of Peć, the seat of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć, at the time led by Serbian Patriarch Maksim I. There, as he grew older, he was tonsured and ordained a decon and then a priest, thanks to the good graces of his mentor Maksim whom Arsenije later described as "my father and teacher". In 1665, Arsenije became the abbot (archimandrite) of this monastery. When Patriarch Maksim suffered a stroke, Arsenije was elected as Metropolitan of Hvosno and coadjutor of the patriarch. He was consecrated bishop by the metropolitans of the patriarchal synod on the Feast of the Ascension in 1669. When, in 1672, Patriarch Maksim fell sick and withdrew from the position, Arsenije, only 39 years old, was elected patriarch, probably between Easter and Ascension.