Savatije Ljubibratić

Bishop of Herzegovina

Starting in 1687, Savatije Ljubibratić fought against the Ottomans with Venetian backing. In December of that year, he was in Tvrdoš when Vukašin Gavrilović arrived from Nikšić. In 1690, he and his brother Stevan fled Trebinje for Herceg Novi to escape the Ottomans, and there they restored the Savina Monastery. Venice recognized him as Metropolitan of Zahumlje in Novi in 1695, with his territory covering newly conquered lands. The Serbian Church began efforts to create an independent Serb municipality in the old Dračevica region.

Bishop of Dalmatia

Metropolitan Nikodim Busović, the bishop 'of all Orthodox Serbs on the Dalmatian continent', was banished from Dalmatia in early 1705. On the demand of the Krka monastery and Krupa monastery, Ljubibratić was appointed to Nikodim's office by the Venetian government. Ljubibratić had taken this office in spite of Melentije Tipaldi (1658–1730), the Greek-Catholic bishop who was a driving force of Uniatism, and continued the struggle against the Uniatism of Serbs in Dalmatia.

Tipaldi greatly undermined against Ljubibratić, so far that the Church Synod in Constantinople condemned Tipaldi and excluded him from the Orthodox Church as a traitor; with this support, Ljubibratić was able to continue his service. In July 1705 Metropolitan Savatije Ljubibratić came back from the pilgrimage from Palestine and from the time his vessel entered the quarantine station called lazaretto, he was subjected to the sanitary procedure by the staff of lazaretto in Herceg Novi as every other traveller aboard.

After a lapse of 15 days, he was released. There he proceeded to build a bridge, churches and restore others. Savatije is credited for restoring Savina Monastery, Montenegro. Savatije and his brother Stevan became friends with colonel Mihailo Miloradović, who had along with Metropolitan Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš been recruited by Peter I of Russia to incite rebellion in Herzegovina against the Ottomans in 1710–11 (during the Pruth River Campaign).

Ljubibratić successfully opposed the orders of the Catholic curia against the Orthodox believers in Dalmatia. Savatije declined Venetian official Ivan Burović's offers to begin Uniatism, Burović having sent the Catholic bishop of Kotor and his relative Vićentije Zmajević from Perast. He strengthened ties with the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć, and as a result of that, Serbian Patriarch Mojsije I visited Dalmatia in 1714, after Ljubibratić's request; this visit proved important for the preservation of Orthodoxy and somewhat paused pressure on the Orthodox church in Dalmatia.

Savatije Ljubibratić died in January 1716, in the village of Topla near Herceg Novi. His successor was his brother Stevan Ljubibratić.