Josif Rajačić

Nationalism 1785–1861 ○ Natural causes

Orthodox metropolitan proclaimed Serbian patriarch at the May Assembly of 1848, who led Serbian Vojvodina on the Habsburg side

Born in 1785 at Lučani in Lika, he left his studies to join the Austrian army in 1809, during the War of the Fifth Coalition. In 1810 he became a monk of the Serbian Orthodox Church at Gomirje Monastery; he was made Eparch of Dalmatia in 1829 and of Vršac in 1833, and Metropolitan of Karlovci in 1842. At the May Assembly of Serbs in Sremski Karlovci in 1848 he was proclaimed Patriarch of the Serbs, and as administrator of Serbian Vojvodina he headed its new Serb government and shared the political and military leadership of the Serbs in the war. Promised autonomy, he allied with the House of Habsburg against the Hungarian revolution, and after the Hungarians were defeated the Austrian Empire made him civil commissioner of Vojvodina. He died in 1861.

Also known as: Josif Rajacic · Josif Rajačić-Brinski