Россия и канонический статус Черногорской митрополии (по данным черногорских источников)
Russia and the canonical status of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro (According to Montenegrin sources)

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the relationship between the Russian state and church and the Metropolitanate of Montenegro (Cetinje) in the context of its canonical status. In the 18th century, the Cetinje Metropolitanate remained under the permanent ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Peć until the abolition of the Patriarchate of Peć in 1766. In the 19th century, all Montenegrin metropolitans, except Petar I Petrović-Njegoš, were ordained in Russia. Russia’s political support for Montenegro was coupled with ecclesiastical assistance. This gave rise to erroneous assertions in Serbian historiography about the Russian Church granting autocephaly to the Montenegrin Metropolitanate. In fact, the Russian Church never granted autocephaly to the Montenegrin Metropolitanate, nor could it have done so according to canonical rules. The Montenegrin Metropolitanate and its metropolitans repeatedly explained to Russian religious and state dignitaries that they did not recognize the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Russian Church. The issue was finally clarified by the Moscow Patriarchate’s response to the request of Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Amfilohije Radović, made in 1992. The Moscow Patriarchate replied that throughout the history of Russian-Montenegrin ecclesiastical relations, apart from sisterly love and help, the Russian Church had no influence on the canonical status of the Montenegrin Metropolitanate. The data presented in the article also demonstrate that during the 19th century, prior to Montenegro’s formal recognition as an independent state at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, neither the Montenegrin Metropolitanate nor its secular rulers (Prince Danilo and Prince Nikola) had any contact with the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Therefore, the view, common in historiography of the first decades of the 20th century, that the Patriarchate of Constantinople recognized the autocephalous status of the Montenegrin Metropolitanate is also erroneous.

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