Bishop Vlaho or Vlahoepiskop
Authors: Bubalo Djordje 
Published: November 2007

In three different sources written in Serbian - the inventory of the estates of the monastery of the Holy Virgin in Htetovo as well as in the second and third charter issued by king Dusan to the monastery of Treskavac - there is mention of a church prelate identified as vlahoepiskop. One group of historians interpreted this title as referring to a bishop by the name of Vlaho. On the other hand, historians analysing the clauses of all the charters issued to the monastery of Treskavac noticed that in the first charter issued to that monastery the term Vlach bishop stands in place of the term vlahoepiskop found in the second and third charter. Therefore, although with some vacillation, they interpreted the term vlahoepiskop as a synonym for the bishop of the Vlachs, one of the subordinates of the archbishop of Ohrid. This entirely correct conclusion can further be sustained with new arguments in its favor. Judging by the sources available, the name Vlaho is a hypocorystych of the name Vlasi(je), a transcription of its Greek form, B????o?. However, although B????o? is a calendar and thus also a monastic name, its Slavonic diminutive (Vlaho) was never used in the Serbian or any other Slavonic Orthodox church. The name Vlaho is a specific feature of Dubrovnik onomastica (as is the fact that the name of Vlasi(je) is derived from the Greek and not the Latin form of the name, Blasius). In that form it was used solely by the subjects of the Dubrovnik Republic, in the medieval period exclusively as a personal name, while its basic form, Vlasi(je), referred to the saint. In Cyrillic literacy and the anthroponymia of medieval Serbia, only the form Vlasije, never Vlaho, appears as an equivalent of the Greek B????o?;. Thus, Vlaho could by no means have been used as a monastic name of a high ranking prelate of the Serbian church. As it has already rightfully been pointed out by the Hungarian Byzantologist, Mathias Gyoni, the term vlahoepiskop is a calque (or, I may add, a transcription) of the assumed Greek word ????o?????o?o?, denoting a prelate of the bishopric of the Vlachs. This diocese is probably the administrative unit of the church of Ohrid least well documented by the sources. In Greek sources it appears in XI and XII century notitiae and an inscription from the same period. In Serbian sources it appears in the documents mentioned above. Judging by the available information on the organization of the archbishopric of Ohrid, the bishopric of the Vlachs was not responsible for pastoral care of the Vlachs on the entire territory of the archbishopric, it was rather a typical unit of church administration based on the territorial principle. The epithet Vlach in its name indicates the prevalence of this ethnic and social category within its boundaries. In Greek sources this bishopric is referred to as simply the bishopric of the Vlach (B????v) or, variably, as Bp??v??o?/Bp??v???? ??o? B????v. The word B????o? (i.e. Bp??v??o? in most of the older editions and, based on that, in practically the entire bibliography on the subject) was rightfully taken as a determining geographic term, that is as the name of the see of the bishopric. So far, there are several possible ubications of this episcopal see: in Vranje or the villages of Gornji and Donji Vranovci, north of Prilep and, regardless of the name Bp??v??o? (Bp??v??o??), in Prilep or Hlerin. I am more inclined to believe that the twofold name was used to designate the territory under the jurisdiction of a bishop and the ethnic, i.e. social category the density of whose population was the most salient feature of the region. Judging by the name Bp??v??o?, the territory under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the Vlachs can be identified with the region of the mountain range consisting of the Baba massive, in present day Macedonia, and the ??????? and ????? mountains in Greece. This is a compact mountainous region, with a high concentration of Vlach population confirmed by the sources. Since, according to the data found in the charters of the monastery of Treskavac, some of the church estates of the bishop of the Vlachs was located in Hlerin, the episcopal see was most probably situated in that city. Before his elevation to the episcopal throne, the Vlach bishop mentioned in the Htetovo inventory held the position of archimandrites of the monastery of the Holy Virgin in Htetovo. As the head of a Serbian monastery, he could rise to the throne of the Vlach bishopric only after the territory and the center of that bishopric became a part of the Serbian state. Based on our present knowledge of the chronology and extent of Dusan's conquests of Byzantine territories, the earliest possible date is spring of the year 1342 or autumn of the same year. It is certain, however, that in the autumn of 1342 the former archimandrites of Htetovo had already risen to the throne of the Vlach bishopric. That, at the same time, is the last document of its existence.