ABSTRACT
In order to situate Orfelin’s Festive Greeting in its appropriate historical and geopolitical setting, it is necessary to outline a wider historical context than just the years surrounding the installation of Mojsej Putnik. For a proper understanding of the political claims made with, and within, Orfelin’s festival manuscript, it is essential to know the history of the Archbishopric from the arrival of Orthodox Serbs in the Habsburg lands until its gradual decline at the end of the eighteenth century. It starts with the events that resulted in the Great Exodus of the Serbs to the Empire of Leopold I in 1690, and the subsequent establishment of the Archbishopric (of Karlovci) in Southern Hungary. I will discuss the political position of the Serbs in the Empire, the rise and fall of the archiepiscopal capitals, and their role as the centres of power and culture following the succession of events chronologically.
