Danilo I, Metropolitan of Cetinje

Danilo I
Metropolitan of Cetinje

Illustration from The Mountain Wreath, 1847
Native name Данило I
Church Serbian Orthodox Church
See Skenderija and Primorje
Elected 1696
In office 1696–1735
Predecessor Savatije
Successor Sava Petrović
Orders
Ordination June 1700
by Arsenije III
Personal details
Born 1670
Njeguši, Montenegro, Ottoman Empire
Died January 11, 1735
Podmaine monastery, Republic of Venice
Buried Podmaine monastery
Denomination Eastern Orthodoxy
Residence Cetinje
Coat of arms

Danilo Šćepčević (Serbian Cyrillic: Данило Шћепчевић, 1670 – January 11, 1735) was the Metropolitan of Cetinje between 1696 and 1735. He styled himself "vojevodič srpskoj zemlji" ("duke of the Serb land").

Early life

Danilo Šćepčević was born in Njeguši to father Stepan (hence "Šćepčević") and mother Ana.[1] His family belonged to the Heraković brotherhood.[2] He was known by the surname Šćepčević, while Petrović (Петровић) was only used later;[1] he never called himself Petrović – it was first used by his nephews Sava and Vasilije,[3] after a progenitor of the Petrović-Njegoš, Radul, known by his monastic name Petar,[4] or after their father, Petar.[2] He signed himself Danilo Šćepčev Heraković Njeguš (Данило Шћепчев Хераковић Његуш).[2] Danilo had a brother, Radul, known as Rade Šćepčev.[3]

As a fifteen-year-old, he was a witness to the battle of Vrtijeljka (1685).[5] It is possible that he heard the details of the battle from some survivor.[5] He mentioned "noble and famous hajduks who fell at Vrtijeljka" in a letter to the Montenegrin chiefs dated to 1714.[5]

Chirotony

In 1696, the Montenegrin tribal assembly chose Danilo Šćepčević as the head of the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Cetinje, following the Great Migrations of the Serbs which left the seat of the Serbian Church to Phanariote Greeks who were closely associated with the Porte. Danilo was, as other Serbian bishops, unwilling to subordinate himself to Kalinik I, the new Patriarch of Peć.[6]

In 1700, he chose not attend an assembly dedicated to Kalinik in Peć, but instead went to Dunaszekcső (Sečuj), in Habsburg Hungary, at the assembly of the Serbian Patriarch in exile, Arsenije III.[7] Danilo was chirotonized by Arsenije III as the bishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Skenderija and Primorje.[8] The chirotony, which took place during the national-church assembly, was participated by Serbian metropolitans from all over the Serbian lands,[9] as well as other notable Serbs. It is likely that Danilo had met Arsenije III earlier when Arsenije was in Cetinje in 1689, asking the Montenegrins to take up arms and unite, to organize a fight against the Ottomans.[8]

Tenure

He coordinated defense operations and partially settled tribal disputes among his people.

An uprising broke out in 1711, after calls by Danilo, where the Montenegrins fought alongside Highlanders and Herzegovinians against local Ottomans.[10]

During his rule political ties between Russia and Montenegro were first established. Russian historian Pavel Rovinsky, in writing about Montenegrin-Russian relations, concluded that it was the pretensions of Turkey and Austria (and at times the Republic of Venice) that turned Montenegro to Russia. Having nowhere to turn in the terrible struggle for the survival of their people, the leading spirits of the Serb land of Montenegro turned to the past, to their mythical origins—to the ancient homeland of the Slavs—all the more readily because it was not only a Great Power but an increasingly powerful factor as a counter-Turkish and counter-Austrian force.

Danilo had this message for the Montenegrin common council (zbor) and its tribal chiefs in 1714:

“ My death would be graceful if you would want to all unite and perish honourably and gloriously, as was done by Prince Lazar and Miloš Obilić who slew the Sultan on Kosovo, and finally fell with his master and all 7,000 fighters – which led us Montenegrins to this rubble – leaving after themselves glory and honour.[11] ”

In 1715, Danilo visited Czar Peter I at St. Petersburg and secured his alliance against the Ottomans—a journey that became traditional among his successors in Montenegro and in all the Serbian lands elsewhere in the Balkans. He subsequently recovered Zeta from the Ottomans, restored the monastery at Cetinje, and erected defences around Podostrog-Podmaine Monastery in Budva, which was rebuilt in 1630 and served as a summer residence of the ruling family of Montenegro.

On May 1, 1718, the Republic of Venice recognized Danilo as the spiritual authority over the Orthodox in Paštrovići and the Bay of Kotor.[12] From then on, until the fall of Venice, the Metropolitans of Cetinje had the right to build new and reconstruct destroyed churches in those territories, and to freely preach there.[12]

Succession

Danilo was succeeded by two close kinsmen, first his cousin Sava II Petrović Njegoš and then his nephew Vasilije Petrović Njegoš, who for more than two decades was able to push aside the unworldly Sava and become effectively the highest authority in Montenegro and its representative abroad. Danilo's choice of Sava II clearly had a lot to do with family ties and clan membership, Sava's family came from the Petrovići's native Njeguši. Like Danilo, Sava became a monk, serving in the Maine monastery on the coast where he was consecrated as an archpriest in 1719 by the Serbian Patriarch of Peć, Mojsije (1712–1726). From the time of his ordination onwards, Danilo sought to introduce the young Sava gradually to political life, conferring on him the office of coadjutor in confirmation of his future role. But little about Sava's later career suggests that he gained much from early exposure to Danilo's experience, except that he continued to maintain a policy of status quo while allowing the tribal chieftains a free hand to do as they pleased.

Politics

Danilo was instrumental in the process of connecting families, clans and tribes.[4]

He was said to have issued the "extermination of the Turkicized" (Istraga poturica), as included in The Mountain Wreath (1847), however, there are views that this never happened.

Styles

References

  1. 1 2 Владимир Ћоровић; Драгољуб С Петровић (2006). Историја Срба. Дом и школа. p. 481. владика Данило Шћепчевић , после прозвао Петровић
  2. 1 2 3 Srpsko Učeno Društvo (1874). Glasnik Srpskoga Učenog Društva. 40. pp. 57–.
  3. 1 2 Ruvarac 1899, p. 134.
  4. 1 2 Milivoje Pajović (2001). Vladari srpskih zemalja. Gramatik. Унутрашњи развој доводи до чврстог повези- вања родова, братстава и племена, а главни носилац тог процеса био је владика Данило (Шћепчевић) Петровић. Родоначелник Петровића-Његоша био је Радул, у монаштву Петар.
  5. 1 2 3 Vuković 1996, p. 13.
  6. ↑ Radojka Gorjanac; Petar Milošević (1990). Seoba Srba 1690: čitanka o istoriji i kulturnoj prošlosti Srba u Mađarskoj. Skupština građa Beograda. p. 104.
  7. ↑ Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti (1904). Glas. 68; 70; 72. p. 160. датака, јасно је и зашто млетачки штићеник Данило, изабран за цетињског владику 1696 године, не иде 1700 године на посвећење патријарху Калинику у Пећ него Арсенију III у Сечуј. Што се све ово дешава, нема сумње да у ...
  8. 1 2 Vuković 1996, p. 21
    онда се не треба чудити зашто се овај владика 1700. године запутио у далеки Сечуј да га, управо он — Арсеније III Чарнојевић, његов земљак и комшија, хиротонише за владику цетињ- ског и митрополита Скандарије и Приморја. Вероватно је Данило Шћепчевић, као деветна- естогодишњи младић, упознао Арсенија III Чарноје- вића када је 1689. године боравио у Цетињу, свом родном крају, и можда га је слушао када је ватреним речима подстицао Црногорце да прихвате оружје и у Христово име, са његовим благословом, међусобно уједињени, организују борбу против Мухамедо- вих следбеника, односно када је
  9. ↑ Sava (Bishop of Šumadija.) (1996). Srpski jerarsi: od devetog do dvadesetog veka. Evro. p. 156.
  10. ↑ Vuković 1996, p. 184.
  11. ↑ Батрић Јовановић (1986). Црногорци о себи (од владике Данила до 1941): прилог историји црногорске нације. Народна књ. ISBN 978-86-331-0048-9. Мила би ми била смрт да сте ви хтјели да сви уједињени изгинемо часни и славно, као што је то учинио сам Кнез Лазар и Милош Обилић који уби цара на Косову, па најзад и сам погибе са својим господаром и свих седам хиљада бораца, - што нас Црногорце довело у ове крше, - оставивши послије себе славу и част.
  12. 1 2 Rajko L. Veselinović (1966). Istorija srpske pravoslavne crkve sa narodnom istorijom. p. 48.
  13. 1 2 Matica srpska, Lingvistička sekcija (1974). Zbornik za filologiju i lingvistiku, Volume 17, Issues 1-2. Novi Sad: Matica srpska. p. 84. Данил, митрополит Скендерије u Приморја (1715. г.),28 Данил, владика цетински Његош, војеводич српској земљи (1732. г.).
  14. ↑ Velibor V. Džomić (2006). Pravoslavlje u Crnoj Gori. Svetigora. То се види не само по његовом познатом потпису „Данил Владика Цетињски Његош, војеводич Српској земљи" (Запис 1732. г.) него и из цјелокупког његовог дјелања као митрополита и господара. Занимљиво је у том контексту да ...

Sources

Religious titles
Preceded by
Savatije Kaluđerović		 Metropolitan of Cetinje
1696–1735 		Succeeded by
Sava Petrović
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