One faith, two churches: Religion splits again in Yugoslavia

The newly revived Montenegrin Orthodox Church is headquartered in the living room of this house in Cetinje

January 27, 2000
Web posted at: 12:21 p.m. EST (1721 GMT)

By Steve Nettleton
CNN Interactive Correspondent

CETINJE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- In the most prosaic of settings for a church -- the converted living room of a modest, three-story house -- a priest in traditional Orthodox robes solemnly lights prayer candles, injecting a spark into the eyes of gilded icons of Christ and the saints on the altar before him.

Finishing this task, the priest next draws a curtain above the altar, displaying a square red flag emblazoned with a white cross. It is a flag that has not been featured in an Orthodox church in this region for 80 years: the ancient military flag of Montenegro.

In so doing, the priest declares that this is no longer a Serbian Orthodox Church. It is now a Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

PANORAMIC VIEW Click here for a panoramic image of a chapel in the historic St. Petar Cetinjski monastery in Cetinje

In these unassuming surroundings, the priest and his fellow clerics have staked their claim to a precious piece of religious territory and taken a symbolic step toward separation from Serbia, Montenegro's powerful sister republic in the Yugoslav federation.

Frustrated by what they perceived as second-class treatment of Montenegro by Belgrade and buoyed by a growing sense of national pride, Montenegrin religious leaders on January 17, 2000, resurrected the Montenegrin Orthodox Church.

The church was independent from 1766 until 1920, when it was assimilated into the Serbian Orthodox Church under the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (soon to become Yugoslavia).

Cetinje sits at the foot of Mount Lovcen atop which Petar II Petrovic Nejegos, one of Montenegro's most famous poets and prince-bishops, is entombed. It was from Cetinje that a dynasty of Orthodox prince-bishops ruled Montenegro from 1516 to 1851.

"The politics of the Serbian Orthodox Church is no different than the aggressive and arrogant politics of the Serbian state that we have seen in the past few years," said the leader of the Montenegrin church, Metropolitan Mihailo, defending his church's decision to secede from the Serbian patriarchate.

"The Serbian Orthodox Church is against the Montenegrin nation and the Montenegrin state. They think that this is a province of Serbia."

It is no accident that Mihailo set up his church headquarters in Cetinje, a small mountain town about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from Podgorica (formerly Titograd), capital of Montenegro.

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It was in Cetinje that a dynasty of Montenegrin Orthodox prince-bishops, known as vladike, ruled Montenegro from 1516 to 1851. And from 1878 to 1918 Cetinje was the capital of independent Montenegro.

Cetinje also holds special meaning for Serbs because it was here that lexicographer Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic, father of the modern Serbian alphabet and grammar, spent several years in the 19th century collecting the folk stories, poems and songs for which he was equally famous.

The monastery of St. Petar Cetinjski in Cetinje was Montenegrin before 1920, when it was taken over by the Serbian Orthodox Church

Inside the once-Montenegrin, now-Serbian monastery of St. Petar Cetinjski, a palace of white stone that towers above the town, Serbian Orthodox clerics vent anger at the breakaway church. For them, the Montenegrin Orthodox Church represents nothing less than heresy.

"They are a sect. They're Judas," said Father Danilo, his hands tightly clenching his rosary beads. "As we all know, there are only two ways to go: to hell or to paradise. They all will be going to hell."

The re-establishment of the Montenegrin church is the latest move by Montenegro to distance itself from Yugoslavia's government. Although Montenegro has refused to push for outright independence, it has moved carefully away from the autocratic policies of President Slobodan Milosevic.

In a region where religious nationalism has provoked bloodshed, the assertion of a separate church for Montenegro stresses an unstable fault line between Montenegrins and Serbs.

From 1878 to 1918 Cetinje was the capital of independent Montenegro. In 1946 it was succeeded as capital of the Yugoslav province by nearby Podgorica (formerly Titograd).

Most Montenegrins dismiss any fears of conflict. For them, it is simply a matter of getting what is rightfully theirs.

"Montenegro has its own nation, so why wouldn't it have its own church?" asked Cetinje resident Boban Vukicevic. "If Serbia has its flag, state, nation and church, why shouldn't we have the same?"

Others wonder why the two churches, which share the same doctrines and rites, could ever consider themselves separate.

"For me, it really makes no difference," said Olga Tomanovic. "Orthodoxy is orthodoxy. It's the same to me as far as which church I would attend. In the end, for Serbs and Montenegrins, the sign of the cross is the same."