Bishop Dionisije (Milivojevic)

Bishop Dionisije (Milivojević) of Chicago, the USA and Canada (1898-1979)

Dionisije may be spelt Dionysius, Dionysiyi, Dionysios.

Dragoljub may be spelt Dragoliub.

Milivojević may be be spelt Milivojevich, Milivoievich, Milivoievitch.

Early life of Dragoljub Milivojević

On 13/26 July, 1898, Dragoljub Milivojević was born in the village of Rabrovac near Smederevska Palanka in Serbia.

Dragoljub was raised as an Orthodox Christian within the bosom of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

He completed his primary and secondary education in his home village in Serbia.

Higher education

After completing high school and having graduated, he enrolled at the Law Faculty of Belgrade University.

However, after 2 years, he changed faculties and enrolled in the Faculty of Theology, from which he graduated. While still in his youth, he accepted "millennaristic" teachings about a so-called thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. He later abandoned this theory.

He was still young when he became one of the leaders of the “bogomoljačkog” movement. This “Bogomoljacki Pokret” movement, with which Saint Nikolaj (Velimirović) was also associated, was a movement of “God-pray-ers” (those who pray to God) which had developed in the 19th century to counter the western-influenced tendency towards faithlessness (even atheism) that came with the dominance of philosophy over all learning. This means that the very limited human reasoning and logic take precedence, then, over the revelation of Himself to us.

Marriage

After Dragoljub graduated, he married, but his wife fell asleep in the Lord quite soon thereafter. Such early deaths of women after marriage (and often enough, later) were frequently associated with complications in childbirth, although there were certainly other causes.

Dragoljub decided not to re-marry and he remained a widower.

Monastic life and tonsure

Dragoljub then went to live at the Hilandar Monastery on the Holy Mountain, Mount Athos (a peninsula in north-eastern Greece, in the region of Central Macedonia).

There, he was tonsured to be a monk, and he received the monastic name Dionisije.

Ordinations

In time, Monk Dionisije (Milivojević) was ordained both to the Holy Diaconate and then to the Holy Priesthood at this monastery.

Pastoral service

After some time, the Hieromonk Dionisije (Milivojević) was elected to become the abbot of the monastery. He was therefore elevated to the dignity of igumen, and then to that of archimandrite.

Return to Serbia

After his service in the Hilandar Monastery, Archimandrite Dionisije (Milivojević) was recalled to Serbia, where he was assigned to serve as a professor in the Orthodox seminary in Sremski Karlovci, Yugoslavia.

Later, he was assigned to serve as the administrator of the monastic school in the Decani Monastery.

Dečani Monastery, Serbia

At the same time, he was very active in the “bogomoljacki” movement, in which he had remained involved since his student days. He edited the "Bogomoljacki" newsletter of the Christian community until 1933.

In 1938, Archimandrite Dionisije (Milivojević) was elected by the Holy Synod of Bishops of Serbian Orthodox Church to become a bishop.

Episcopal ordination, 1938

Igumen Dionisije (Milivojević) was ordained to the Holy Episcopate by Patriarch Gavrilo (Dožić) and others in August, 1938, in the Belgrade Cathedral of Saint Michael.

Episcopal service

Bishop Dionisije (Milivojević) was assigned to be the Bishop of Moravica and Vicar-Bishop of Patriarch Gavrilo (Dožić).

Transfer to North America, 1939

In late 1939, Bishop Dionisije (Milivojević) was elected to become the bishop of the USA and Canada.

He took up the administration of the Diocese of the USA and Canada on 15 April, 1940, at the beginning of World War II.

Bishop Dionisije served his first Hierarchical Divine Liturgy on 21 April, 1940, at the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois.

The work by Bishop Dionisije in the diocese began with the Monastery of Saint Sava in Libertyville, Illinois. During the war, the monastery became a safe haven for refugee Serbs.

Vladyka Dionisije moved the seat of the Diocese of Chicago to the Monastery of Saint Sava in Libertyville, and he then made a full renovation. During the years 1941-1943, the monastery land was increased to 73 acres.

Saint Sava Monastery Temple

In 1950, he purchased a farm of 1,400 acres at Shadeland, Pennsylvania. There were buildings for the accommodation of elderly persons and a children's resort. In Jackson, California, he bought another 173 acres of land. He further organised the growing number of parishes and church-school congregations into administrative groups.

In order to introduce the world public to the suffering of the Serbian people during World War II, in 1943, Vladyka Dionisije wrote a book in the English language, “Martyrdom of the Serbian People”.

Certainly, the most important venture that Bishop Dionisije undertook as bishop of the American-Canadian diocese was his work of bringing to North America and taking care of Serbs from detention camps in Germany, Italy and Austria after World War II. According to the records, 16,000 Serbs were brought to the USA and Canada on the basis of letters of guarantee which were signed by Bishop Dionisije, and about 30 written statements by him for the priests who came to the United States and Canada, and then served the parishes.

Restructuring ; schism, 1963

In 1963, the Synod of Bishops of the Church of Serbia ("Sabor") restructured the Diocese of the USA and Canada. The USA was divided into 3 new dioceses : Midwestern America, Eastern America, and Canada and Western America. In addition, the Holy Synod elected Bishop Dionisije's administrative secretary, Archimandrite Firmilian (Ocokoljić), to be the bishop of the new Diocese of Midwestern America. The action by the Holy Synod led to a long controversy, because Bishop Dionisije refused to relinquish his office and he charged that the American diocese was being subjected to communist control from abroad.

After initially being suspended, Bishop Dionisije was removed from his see later in 1963.

Schism, 1963

Because Vladyka Dionisije refused to accept the situation, he formed the "Free Serbian Orthodox Church Diocese of the USA and Canada" in late 1963. This led his American diocese into a schism which would not be healed until 1992.

In March, 1964, Bishop Dionisije formed the Free Serbian Eastern Orthodox Church in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

On 31 October, 1964, in Australia, he convened the first National Church Assembly in Melbourne, where the Free Serbian Orthodox Church, Diocese of Australia and New Zealand, was formally established.

Later in 1964, Bishop Dionisije was deposed by the Holy Synod of Serbia for disobedience. He contested his removal in the civil courts of the USA. Ultimately, the dispute eventually reached the United States Supreme Court which reversed all the previous decisions of the courts in the state of Illinois, and it ordered that the decisions of the American Supreme Court be carried out. Their finding was :

 The reorganization of the Diocese involves solely a matter of internal church government, an issue at the core 
 of ecclesiastical affairs.  Religious freedom encompasses the power [of religious bodies] to decide for 
 themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.

Bishop Dionisije and others blessing water

Metropolitanate of New Gračanica

Bishop Dionisije (Milivojević) remained in Libertyville until the end of his life.

The administration of the schismatic church became a metropolitanate : the "Metropolitanate of New Gračanica (Grachanichka)". The establishment of the administration in this manner and with this title implied that Bishop Dionisije, as Metropolitan Dionisije, was now the head of an independent and self-governing ecclesial entity.

As a consequence, the metropolitanate extended its "sphere of influence", and the bishops and parishes that participated in this metropolitanate came to exist as dioceses in the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The schism was healed only after the fall of communism in Serbia (1990-1992).

Repose, 1979

Bishop Dionisije (Milivojević) fell asleep in the Lord on 15 May, 1979, at the Monastery of Saint Sava in Libertyville, Illinois.

On 23 May, 1979, the Funeral Services for a Hierarch were offered in the Monastery Temple of Saint Sava.

After the funeral services, the body of Bishop Dionisije was interred at the monastery cemetery, next to the monastery Temple.

Grave marker of Metropolitan Dionisije (Milivojević) (behind the marker of Saint Nikolaj (Velimirović)

— Vicar-Bishop of Moravica 1938-1939. Preceded by : ___. Succeeded by : ___.

— Bishop of Chicago, the USA and Canada 1940-1963. Preceded by : Bishop Mardarije (Uskoković). Succeeded by : Bishop Firmilian (Ocokoljić).

— Bishop of New Gračanica and the “Free Serbian Orthodox Church” 1963-1979. Preceded by : See created. Succeeded by : Metropolitan Irinej (Kovačević).

Reflections

After the repose of Bishop Dionisije (Milivojević), the monastery was returned to the canonical Chicago diocese.

The Metropolitanate consisted of three dioceses: the Diocese of America and Canada (headquartered in the Monastery of Nova Grachanichka near Chicago), the Diocese of Australia and New Zealand (headquartered in the Monastery of Novi Kalenic, at Canberra) and the Diocese of Western Europe (based in London).

In 1992, Patriarch Pavle II (Stojčević) entered into a conversation with Metropolitan Irinej (Kovačević). Soon afterwards, the schism was healed, reconciliation was achieved, and it was confirmed by the celebration of a joint Divine Liturgy at the Holy Visitation of the Virgin Cathedral Temple in Belgrade in February, 1992.

After this, the Diocese of Western Europe ceased to exist in 1994, following the decision of the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church on the reorganisation of the parishes in the territory of Western Europe.

A new Western European Diocese was established from parts of the Central European, Britain-Scandinavia and the Diocese for Western Europe of the New Gračanica Metropolitanate.

The territories of Spain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium were made part of the new diocese.

Under the new organisation, the New Gračanica Monastery continued to be developed.

Newer New Gračanica Monastery Temple, 2016

References

Orthodoxwiki biography

Serbian Wikipedia biography

Serbian Wikipedia biography of Bishop Dionisije (in Serbian)

Russian Wikipedia biography

Orthodox Encyclopedia article about Bishop Dionisije

Orthodox Encyclopedia article about Bishop Dionisije (in Russian)

Additional information :

Bochkov, Priest Pavel V, ‘The Emergence and Activity of the Free Serbian Orthodox Church, from Confrontations to Unity’, in “Journal of the Penza Spiritual Seminary”, vol. 4, no. 2 (2017), pp. 142-147. (article in Russian)

Hockenos, Paul, “Homeland Calling : Exile, Patriotism & the Balkan Wars” (Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, 2003). ISBN : 0-8014-4158-7.

Milivojević, Bishop Dionisije, “Martyrdom of the Serbs”

Puzovic, Predrag, Article about Serbian Orthodox Church Eparchies Abroad (PDF) in “Journal of the Orthodox Theological Faculty, Belgrade” (in Serbian), vol. 40 (1996), nos. 1-2, pp. 87–96 : PDF article in English ; PDF article in Serbian

Spasović, Stanimir, Miletić, Srboljub, “History of the Serbian Orthodox Church : Schism on the North American Continent”

Tarasar, Constance J, ed., “Orthodox America 1794-1976 : Development of The Orthodox Church in America” (Syosset, NY : The Orthodox Church in America Department of History and Archives, 1975). ASIN : B000ZLZAUE.

Vuković, Sava, “History of the Serbian Orthodox Church in America and Canada 1891–1941” (Kragujevac, Serbia : Kalenić, 1998)

Orthodox Encyclopedia article about the American-Canadian Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church 1921-1963

US Supreme Court Serbian Orthodox Diocese vs Milivojevich - 426 U.S. 696 (1976)

Australia Free Serbian Orthodox Church decision

Wikipedia article about the New Gračanica Metropolia (in Serbian)

Social Security death file and burial dates

History of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (in Serbian)

Diocese in America and Canada (in Serbian)

Metropolia of New Gračanica (in Serbian)

Orthodox History article

Wikipedia article about the Diocese of New Gračanica

Diocese of New Gračanica-Midwestern America web-site