🇺🇸 Evstatije – The Last Bishop of the Pirot Eparchy (Deep DIve)

In 1872, Evstatije was appointed Bishop of the Nišava (Pirot) Eparchy under the auspices of the Bulgarian Exarchate, as an educated clergyman of Bulgarian origin. During his administration, he pursued the policy of the Exarchate by introducing the Bulgarian language into church administration and the school system, facing resistance from the local Serbian population. Following the liberation of Pirot in December 1877, Evstatije welcomed the Serbian army and formally accepted the jurisdiction of the Metropolitanate of Belgrade. Due to doubts regarding the sincerity of his loyalty and his continued ties with Exarchate circles, the Serbian authorities removed him from Pirot during 1878 and sent him to the St. Roman Monastery. With his removal and the final merger of this diocese into the Eparchy of Niš in 1880, Evstatije went down in history as the last bishop of the Pirot Eparchy.SOURCES:Trebješanin R. Evstatije — poslednji episkop Pirotske eparhije. Pirotski zbornik. 1975; (7): 127–152.Vojvodić M. Kako je Srpska crkva dobila nezavisnost 1879. godine. Istorijski časopis. 2003; 50: 87–98.Lilić B. Odanost Srba Nišavljana veri i tradiciji. Niš: Eparhija niška; 1998.Kolev D. O Šopluku i Šopima kao faktoru integracije Balkana. U: Pravoslavlje i identitet pravoslavnih naroda. Beograd: Fakultet za diplomatiju i bezbednost; 2019. s. 192–223.Krstić D. Konstrukcija identiteta Torlaka u Srbiji i Bugarskoj [doktorska disertacija]. Beograd: Univerzitet u Beogradu, Filozofski fakultet; 2014.Pirotska mitropolija [Internet]. Niš: Eparhija niška; 2026 Dostupno na: https://eparhijaniska.rs/