At the
May Assembly in
Sremski Karlovci in 1848, prior to the
Serb uprising of 1848–49, the
Serbs of the
Habsburg monarchy proclaimed the creation of the
Serbian Vojvodina, a Serb autonomous region within the Monarchy. The metropolitan of Karlovci,
Josif Rajačić, was also proclaimed "Serbian Patriarch", thus the
Metropolitanate of Karlovci became a Patriarchate. The title of "Serbian Patriarch" given to Rajačić was confirmed by the
Emperor Franz Joseph I the same year. This confirmation of Rajačić as the Serbian Patriarch, and
Stevan Šupljikac as Vojvoda, was a political move made by Emperor Franz Joseph I. He was confronted with
revolution in his country and had difficulties subduing the
Hungarians under
Kossuth. Šupljikac and his Croatian counterpart,
Josip Jelačić supported the Emperor against the Hungarians. The establishment of the Patriarchate in Karlovci was seen as restoration of Serbian unity in Austria and Hungary and the patriarch was considered the ranking personage among the Serbs. Some authors claimed that actually the Habsburg dynasty in Austria founded the patriarchate of Karlovci because only a Sovereign could institute and recognize the rank of the Patriarch. In 1865, the Eastern Orthodox
Romanians that were under jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Karlovci were separated and transferred to the jurisdiction of newly created Romanian Metropolitanate of
Sibiu under
Andrei Șaguna. Process was accomplished by mutual agreement that included the transfer of the
Eparchy of Arad and eastern parts of
Eparchy of Temišvar and
Eparchy of Vršac. In 1873, Bishopric of
Chernivtsi in
Bukovina, that was since 1783 under the spiritual jurisdiction of Karlovci, was elevated to the rank of Archbishopric when new
Metropolitanate of Bukovinian and Dalmatia was created for
Cisleithanian eparchies. New Archbishop of Chernivtsi gained jurisdiction over Serbian eparchies of
Dalmatia and
Kotor, that also were (until then) under spiritual jurisdiction of Karlovci. The last patriarch,
Lukijan Bogdanović, was murdered in 1913. After his death, the patriarchal throne remained vacant for the last seven years of its existence, with following bishops serving as
locum tenens:
Miron (Nikolić) of Pakrac (1913 and 1914–1919), of Gornji Karlovac (1913–1914) and
Georgije (Letić) of Temišvar (1919–1920; coadjutor 1918–1919). Following the
dissolution of Austria-Hungary in the autumn of 1918, the Patriarchate of Karlovci was in 1920 merged into the newly united
Serbian Orthodox Church under one Serbian patriarch residing in
Belgrade, with the title of
Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade and Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch. During
World War II, the
Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a
puppet state of
Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy led by the Fascist
Ustaše movement, was established in parts of
occupied Yugoslavia. Due to the German pressure over growing anarchy in the country, caused by the
Genocide of Serbs with the ultimate goal of creating an ethnically pure
Greater Croatia, the Ustaše created a unrecognized sect named the
Croatian Orthodox Church (1942–1945) in order to
annihilate and
Croatise the remaining
Serb minority. It was meant to destroy religious, cultural and national ties between Serbs in Serbia and Serbs in the NDH, as the Ustaše at time could not achieve their goal of exterminating the whole Serb population of Croatia. After several robberies and bombings of
Serbian Orthodox properties, and
massacres and war crimes against Serbian Orthodox clergy, the Croatian Orthodox Church attempted to self-proclaim itself as the heir of the Patriarchate of Karlovci, but its Archbishop
Germogen Maximov was enthroned in Zagreb. ==Eparchies==