ABSTRACT
The Serbian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Orthodox Church having the patriarch as its head and consisting of 3 archbishoprics, 6 metropolitanates, and 31 dioceses, counting more than 11 million people. It is the largest church in Serbia and Montenegro, and the second largest in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. It has an archbishopric in Macedonia and dioceses in Western Europe, North America, and Australia. The Serbian patriarchate is ranked sixth in the seniority among autocephalous Orthodox churches after four ancient patriarchates (excluding the see of Rome) – i.e. Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem – and the Russian patriarchate.
