Hadži Zaharija

Hadži Zaharija (Serbian Cyrillic: Хаџи-Захарија, fl. 1794–died 1830) was the Metropolitan of Prizren[1] (Ras, Prizren and Skenderija) from 1819 to 1830.

Biography

Zaharija was born in the village of Vince near Kumanovo. His childhood years were spent in the school of the monastery of Visoki Dečani. He was noticed as bright and pious by abbot Danilo Kažanegra who took him on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1794 (hence hadži, from Turkish hacı, "pilgrim"). After the death of Kažanegra he became the next abbot of Dečani.

After the death of Metropolitan Joanikije (Janićije), the local Serbs insisted that Zaharija would succeed him. After Mahmud-pasha Rotulović of Prizren, a local plenipotentiary, agreed to it and Zaharija was sent to Constantinople to be consecrated.

His work as metropolitan of Ras-Prizren came in troublesome times. During the Greek Uprising (1821) several monks of Visoki Dečani were hanged while Zaharija was imprisoned[2] for almost a year.[3]

Zaharija is also known for having made Petar II Petrović Njegoš, future bishop-prince of Montenegro, into a monk.

He died in 1830 and was buried in Visoki Dečani monastery. He was the last Serb metropolitan of Ras-Prizren for almost a century (until 1896).

References

  1. ↑ Srpsko učeno društvo (1878). Glasnik Srpskoga učenog društva. p. 194.
  2. ↑ Sava, episkop Šumadijski, Srpski jerarsi od devetog do dvadesetog veka, Beograd-Podgorica-Kragujevac, 1996, p. 189
  3. ↑ Bibliotekar. Društvo bibliotekara N.R. Srbije. 1972. 1821. године, Хаџи Захарија је био затворен скоро годину дана.


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