Mojsije Putnik

Mojsije Putnik (

Vasilije Putnik was born in 1728, in Novi Sad, at the time part of Kingdom of Hungary in the Habsburg monarchy (modern Serbia). He was the grandson of Stevan Putnik, a captain of the Military Frontier who served in the Imperial Guard Cavalry and achieved minor nobility status which was conferred to him in 1621 by Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. Stefan died in 1622 in the Thirty Years' War, but his male heir attained the honour of knighthood.. Coming from such an illustrious background meant that Vasilije Putnik received a thorough education that commenced in the primary and later Latin School in Novi Sad, the same school where Zaharije Orfelin taught two decades later.^[2]

Vasilije Putnik went to the Lycée of Novi Sad as a student of theology and philosophy, and soon thereafter he decided to take orders at the age of seventeen. Vasilije took the monastic name of Mojsije (Moses) and began his clerical career. He was soon noticed by Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta and was made a deacon. In the next few years he was elevated to the position of Archimandrite. Putnik was then entrusted to an important diplomatic mission to suppress the Uniates (Eastern Catholic Churches) who were propagating their confession in one of the Orthodox dioceses. His mission was a success, as the correspondence kept in the Archiepiscopal Archives confirms, and he managed to persuade the local congregation that was forced to accept the Uniate Church to return to the Eastern Orthodox Church.^[2][3]

With all this in mind, Metropolitan Pavle Nenadović (1699–1768) proposed Putnik as the chief candidate for the Bishopric of Bačka, Szeged, and Eger. After a year of negotiations, Putnik was installed in Novi Sad on the sixth of June 1757. He was then, at the age of 29, the youngest ever Orthodox cleric to be raised to the episcopate.^[4] He was responsible for inviting Jovan Rajić to Novi Sad as well as other Serbian and Russian scholars.

Mojsije Putnik remained in that position for eighteen years, and during that period he took particular care to improve the educational system of his diocese, which culminated in the foundation of

His congregation desired to have him elected archbishop immediately after Metropolitan Pavle's death, but numerous intrigues developed during the sabors (assemblies) of 1769 and 1774 which prevented Putnik from taking the high office. After these, he was, at his own request, transferred to the post of Bishop of Banat. His congregation from Novi Sad was so desolate that on the day of his departure a large number of citizens, dressed in their finest clothes, "and driving their finest carriages and carts went to bid him farewell. They followed him as far as Bečej where they parted from him and kissed his hand and the hem of his robes."^[4]

While living in Timișoara, Putnik became the first Orthodox bishop to whom Empress

Customarily, all Serb hierarchs in Montenegro went to the

Mojsije continued his educational policies, and founded the first secondary school in the Military Frontier, better known as the Vojna Krajina, after a permission was received directly from

The Temišvar Serb and Vlah Congress of 1790, to which the Serb parish priests, smallholders, burghers, high clergy and military leaders received an invitation, regarded ad hoc privileged positions as final. Albeit the Turkish occupation ended. On the basis of the existing situation, Frontier General Arsenije Secujac, backed by Serb military and the high clergy, demanded the establishment of a Serb-Illyrian chancellery. Sava Tekelija, a politician and a leader of the Serbs, was opposed to the military demands, advocated a peaceful compromise with the Hungarian authorities in the spirit of constitutionality. (The Vienna Royal Court, following its self-serving divisive policy towards the nationalities of the Danube region, found the creation of the Illyrian chancellery practicable for the time being).

Undoubtedly, the list of his books supplies the most valuable information. In Putnik's library, theological literature abound, particularly Russian ecclesiastical works, and he owned a large number of liturgical titles (books of psalms in several edition, catechisms, prayer books and books of hours). He also owned famous works such as "the Spiritual Alphabet" and