Eparchy of Križevci

Eparchy of Križevci Dioecesis Crisiensis Križevačka eparhija
Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Križevci, Croatia
Location
Country	Croatia
Ecclesiastical province	Zagreb
Metropolitan	Archdiocese of Zagreb
Statistics
Population - Catholics	(as of 2013) 21,270
Parishes	44
Information
Denomination	Byzantine Church of Croatia and Serbia
Rite	Byzantine Rite
Established	17 June 1777
Cathedral	Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Križevci, Croatia
Co-cathedral	Co-Cathedral of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Zagreb
Secular priests	28
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Nikola Kekić
Metropolitan Archbishop	Josip Bozanić
Website
krizevchi.hbk.hr

The Eparchy of Križevci is part of the Byzantine Church of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, an Eastern Catholic Church sui iuris of the Byzantine Rite which is in full union with the Roman Catholic Church.

It spans the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It mostly gathers its faithful among ethnic Croats in central and eastern Croatia, and among the Rusyns in eastern Slavonia and Vojvodina, with a small Serbian minority.

The liturgy is the Slavonic form of the Byzantine Rite, using the Old Church Slavonic language and the Cyrillic alphabet.

The eparchy of Križevci is currently headed by Bishop Nikola Kekić (appointed 2009).

The Ottoman wars in Europe caused a number of Christian refugees, Orthodox Serbs, to migrate to the Military Frontier of the Habsburg Monarchy (in south-central Croatia and in most of Slavonia) during the 16th and 17th centuries. In particular after the Ottoman defeat in Battle of Sisak of 1593, the Habsburg tried to established an ecclesiastical jurisdiction in full communion with Rome and separated from the Serbian Orthodox Church. After negotiations, it was decided to establish a Byzantine Rite episcopacy based in the monastery of Marča (located near Ivanić Grad).