The independent history of the Orthodox Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina begins in 1219, when the Eparchy of Zahumlje and Herzegovina was founded as part of the Serbian Orthodox Church by Saint Sava, although Orthodox Christians were present from before that time. The majority of Orthodox in the country are Serbs. From the late 1760s until 1880, the Orthodox in Bosnia and Herzegovina were directly under the Patriarchate of Constantinople, following the fall of the Patriarchate of Peć. As such it was led by Phanariotes, Greeks from Istanbul. In 1920, following the First World War and the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the area again came under the religious authority of the newly-reunited Serbian Orthodox Church, under Patriarch Dimitrije.
According to the CIA Factbook, Orthodox Christians make up 31% of the country's population, although this is at best a rough estimate, as the last census was conducted in 1991, before the Bosnian War.[1]
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