GLIGORIJE JEFTANOVIĆ AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CHURCH AND SCHOOL AUTONOMY

Abstract

The first part of this paper presents a brief history of the beginning and course of the Serbian people’s struggle in the provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina for Church and school autonomy and the role Gligorij Jeftanović played as one of the two most important figures leading the movement. The second part of the paper deals with correspondence between Gligorije Jeftanović and Lazar Pupić in 1901 during the time a Serbian envoy was being selected to travel from Sarajevo to Constantinople and attempt to win over the Ecumenical Patriarch to the Serbian cause by gaining support for the Third Imperial Memorandum. It also looks at correspondence after the election with the chosen envoy, Kosta Kujundžić, who tried but failed to win the Ecumenical Patriarch over to the Serbian side. The third part deals the adoption of the Statute on Church and School Autonomy and the decline in Gligorije Jeftanović’s popularity after the emergence of a young, university-educated Serbian intelligentsia, which had new ideas and demands concerning new goals for the continuation of the struggle.

Keywords

• Gligorije Jeftanović, Church and school autonomy, struggle, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Ecumenical Patriarchate, Serbs, Bosnia-Herzegovina