Identity and commemoration
The Orthodox Church in America commemorates "Saint Dositheus the Confessor, Bishop of Serbia" on December 31, but its synaxarion entry supplies no biographical detail; the OCA troparion (Tone 8) hails him only as a "champion of Orthodoxy, teacher of purity and of true worship." Orthodox reference sources—including OrthodoxWiki, orthochristian.com, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese—identify this confessor-bishop of Serbia with Metropolitan Dositheus (Dositej) Vasić of Zagreb. These sources commemorate him on several dates, among them January 13 (the day of his repose) and June 28 with the New Martyrs and Confessors of Serbia; the December 31 date is the commemoration kept in the OCA calendar.
Early life and education
According to Orthodox biographical sources, Dositheus was born in Belgrade on December 5, 1887 (one source gives 1878, which appears to be an error). He studied at the seminary in Belgrade and graduated from the theological academy in Kyiv in 1904 with the degree of Magister of Theology, afterward pursuing further study at universities in Berlin and Leipzig and at the Sorbonne in Paris by 1909. He took monastic vows and was ordained a hierodeacon while still a seminary student.
Episcopal ministry
He was consecrated Bishop of Niš on May 25, 1913, and served that diocese through the upheavals of the First World War. In the early 1920s he was sent to Czechoslovakia at the request of Orthodox Christians returning from the Greek Catholic union; arriving in Carpatho-Russia in 1921, he presided over a gathering of parishes that led to the organization of a new diocese and took part in the consecration of Bishop Gorazd (Pavlík) of Prague in September 1921. In 1931 he was appointed the first Metropolitan of the newly established Zagreb diocese, a post he held until his death.
Confession and repose
After the outbreak of the Second World War and the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, Metropolitan Dositheus was arrested and imprisoned in Zagreb. Gravely ill, he was mistreated during his confinement before being transferred to Belgrade. He died on January 13, 1945, at the Monastery of the Entrance of the Most Holy Mother of God (Vavedenje) in Belgrade from the injuries he had sustained, and is venerated as a confessor who suffered for the faith.
Glorification
On May 22, 1998, the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church declared Metropolitan Dositej a confessor, and in May 2000 his name was entered into the list of Serbian saints together with other New Martyrs and Confessors of Serbia. In May 2008 his relics were translated to the monastery church from the tomb where he had rested since 1945.
