Annunciation Council

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Annunciation Council

The Annunciation Council (Serbian Cyrillic: Благовештенски сабор, Serbian Latin: Blagoveštenski sabor) was a council of Serbs in Austrian Empire which was held 2 April and 1861, on the day of the church holiday Annunciation.

Background[]

After the October Diploma which introduced the constitution in Austria, the Emperor Franz Joseph reconsidered whether to opt for centralism, dualism or federalism. At first, he does not allow the Serbs to hold the assembly (ie he does not convene it), but he invites the patriarch of Serbian Orthodox Church to come to Vienna with 20 respectable people to settle, but Rajačić refuses.

In order to alleviate the indignation of the Serbs over the abolition of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar, the Emperor convened a Serbian parliament in Sremski Karlovci for the Annunciation in 1861 and allowed him to discuss on political issues. In this way, the emperor put pressure on Hungarians and recognized the Serbs as a constitutional people in Hungary. Only Serbs from Hungary could attend it, that is from the former Voivodeship, and that is forbidden to those from Military Frontier. No one expected much from such a limited assembly, but everyone agreed to it.

Council[]

The parliament met on April 2 and gathered the most prominent representatives of Serbs from Hungary. It had 75 members (25 church persons + 3 bishops) who were elected by all Serbs, because there was no time to determine the property census. In this way, the real Serbian elite was elected, and many prominent intellectuals were among them. The conservative elite has now, for the first time, faced the liberal-democratic citizenship with which it has led the fight for a dominant role in Serbian society. Everyone agreed that an autonomous region should be obtained, but they did not agree on when to ask for it. Multiple currents appeared:

1. "Majority" (Patriarch Josif Rajačić and court advisor Đorđe Stojaković) who tried to resolve Serbian issues with the help of the government and the Emperor, relying on Serbian privileges. This current also prevailed, so according to their aspirations, Serbian demands were made - preservation of privileges and church-school autonomy, but also the return of the autonomous region with the elected duke; from Vienna and they were encouraged to ask for as many rights and as much territory as possible, but only to put pressure on the Hungarians - coat of arms, flag, assembly, Serbian language as the language of administration ...
2. "Minority" (Svetozar Miletić) demanded that Serbs find fulfillment of their laws by agreeing with the Hungarian progressive circles and on the basis of their laws (make minor changes to the constitution of 1848) and their natural and national law, and not to invoke 150-year-old privileged privileges; this current was also supported by Prince Mihailo Obrenović, who sent Jovan Ristić as his envoy to Karlovac and some Serbian nobles who were pro-Hungarian; as the court was governed by historical and state law, not natural law, such demands were unacceptably "revolutionary"; on the other hand, it was impossible to agree with the Hungarians if the basic demand was Vojvodina, which would mean the federalization of Hungary; for the first time to separate the Serbian elite from Vienna and the imperial privileges and the beginning of an open conflict with the conservatives.

The demands were handed over to the Emperor and he promised to fulfill them, but in fact he only tactically dealt with the Hungarian state who were against them, and these remained unfulfilled. They remained a significant stronghold in establishing Serbian demands in the following decades.

In the following years, church-people's assemblies were held irregularly, but they only resolved the issues of the school and the church.

Gallery[]

Deputies at the Assembly of the Annunciation in Sremski Karlovci, with the names of all deputies from 1 to 82.

See also[]

• Serbian People's Church Councils in the Karlovac Metropolitanate

Literature[]

• Адамовић, Јова (1902). Привилегије српског народа у Угарској и рад Благовештенског сабора 1861. Загреб: Српска штампарија.
• Васин, Горан (2013). "О српским црквено-народним саборима у Хабзбуршкој монархији 1861-1890" (PDF). Годишњак Историјског архива града Новог Сада. 7: 32–45. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
• (1966). Историја Српске православне цркве. Vol. књ. 2. Минхен: Искра.