Died 29 March 1712 | ||
Jefrem Janković-Tetovac (Skopje, around 1640 – Russia, 1718), Serbian and Russian Orthodox bishop, writer and bibliophile.
Judging from the epitaph on his tomb he was "by origin from Skopje, a Serbian city".
Janković became the Orthodox bishop of the Eparchy of Polog (otherwise known as Eparchy of Tetovo), a diocese under jurisdiction of the Serbian Patriarchate.
During the Great Turkish War of 1683-1699 Janković and his countrymen feared Turkish reprisals so they joined the Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III and escaped northwards into Hungary, all the way to Szentendre which the patriarch made his new home. There he was appointed in 1694 as the Orthodox bishop of Mohacs and Sziget, an important post because of the need to fight off aggressive Catholic propaganda. His seat was in the Orthodox monastery of Branjina.
Due to the pressure of the state to adopt union with Rome early in 1703 Janković left for Russia as patriarch's envoy with an assignment to plead for help. His departure was much to the joy of the Viennese court that forbade him to come back. Since he could not come back from Russia in 1708 he was ordained as the bishop of Suzdal and Yuryevo.
Janković was a man of many interests, most notably a bibliophile. Jefrem had a brother Dimitrije, probably also a monk, who visited him in 1709/1710 in Russia bringing back to Orahovica monastery an evangelion printed in Kiev Pecherska Lavra.