Stevan Ljubibratić

Early life

Stevan Ljubibratić and his brother Savatije were born in Piva, at a time when the region was part of the Ottoman Empire, and belonged to the Ruđić brotherhood. Both took monastic vows and later became bishops. Since 1687, Stevan and Savatije were notable participants in the struggle against the Ottomans, with Venetian support. On 10 December 1687, both were present at Tvrdoš when priest and vojvoda Vukašin Gavrilović with his people came from Nikšić. In 1690, he and the Tvrdoš brotherhood (including his brother Savatije) left Trebinje for Herceg Novi, fleeing the Ottomans, where they renovated the Savina Monastery. The Republic of Venice recognized Savatije's episcopal rule as Metropolitan of Zahumlje in Novi in 1695, with his ecclesiastical province stretching over 'newly conquered areas.'

Bishop of Dalmatia

After Metropolitan Nikodim Busović was banished from Dalmatia in 1705, Stevan's brother Savatije was appointed to his office by the Venetian government, on the demand of the Krka monastery and Krupa monastery. Stevan took this office in spite of Melentije Tipaldi, 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.

Stevan and Savatije 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. Savatije declined Venetian official Ivan Burović's offers to begin Uniatism, and strengthened ties with the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć, whose Patriarch, Mojsije Rajović, visited Dalmatia in 1714 after Ljubibratić's request.

After Savatije's death in January 1716 in the village of Topla, near Herceg Novi, Stevan was chosen to take his brother's throne. On 2 September 1719 Cardinal Fabrizio Paolucci asked Rome that the Nuncio in Venice bar Bishop Stevan Ljubibratić from visiting the Serbian Orthodox population on Venetian territory. On 25 January 1720, responding to the demand by Cardinal Paulucci, the Venetian Government ordered the Providur of Dalmatia to expel Bishop Ljubibratić from Dalmatia.

Following his banishment, Bishop Ljubibratić went to the Serbian Orthodox Ličko-Krbavska and Zrinopoljska Eparchy, established in 1695 by metropolitan Atanasije Ljubojević and certified by Emperor Joseph I in 1707. In Kostajnica, on 1 February 1728, Stevan was made Bishop of Licko-Krbavka and Zrinopoljska Eparchy. His contact with his beloved Dalmatia was Simeon Končarević who became one of the most important figures in 18th-century Serbian history. He died in April 1737.