Stevan Ljubibratić

Stevan Ljubibratić (Piva, c. 1661-Kostajnica, Bosnia-Herzegovina, April, 1737) was a Serbian Orthodox bishop of Dalmatia. He was the brother of Bishop Savatije Ljubibratić of Dalmatia.

Ljubibratić brothers were born in Piva, and belonged to the Ruđić brotherhood, at a time when the region was part of the Ottoman Empire. Ljubibratić, as many of his relatives, took monastic vows and later became a bishop.

Since 1687, Stevan and Savatije Ljubibratić were notable participants in the struggle against the Ottomans, in Venetian support. On 10 December 1687, both Stevan and Savatija were present at Tvrdoš when priest and vojvoda Vukašin Gavrilović with his people came from Nikšić. In 1690, he and the Tvrdoš brotherhood (including his brother Savatije) left Trebinje for Herceg Novi, fleeing the Ottomans, where they renovated the Savina Monastery.

The Republic of Venice recognized Savatije's episcopal rule as Metropolitan (vladika) of Zahumlje in Novi in 1695. His ecclesiastical province stretched over "newly conquered areas". The Serbian Church made the first steps to establish an independent Serb municipality in the region of old Dračevica.

Metropolitan Nikodim Busović, the bishop "of all Orthodox Serbs on the Dalmatian continent", was banished from Dalmatia in 1705. On the demand of the Krka monastery and Krupa monastery, Stevan Ljubibratić's brother Savatije was appointed Nikodim's office by the Venetian government. Ljubibratić had taken this office in spite of Melentije Tipaldi (1658–1730), the Greek-Catholic bishop who was a driving force of Uniatism; and continued the struggle against the Uniatism of Serbs in Dalmatia. Tipaldi greatly undermined against Ljubibratić, so far that the Church Synod in Constantinople condemned Tipaldi and excluded him from the Orthodox Church as a traitor; with this support, Savatije Ljubibratić was able to continue his service.

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