Antonije Abramović

Who was Antonije Abramović?

Metropolitan Antonije, was the first Metropolitan of the uncanonical Montenegrin Orthodox Church and self-proclaimed Metropolitan of Montenegro.

He was an orphan adopted by the Abramović family as a child. His past is shrouded in mystery for the simple reason that he would not speak of his childhood to anyone, stating only that he was an orphan and that 'Abramović' was his adopted name. As a teenager he left the Abramović household in Montenegro and took monastic vows and the monastic name of 'Antonije' at Decani, the Serbian Monastery in Kosovo, in 1933. The Abbot there at the time was Dionisije Milivojević, who in 1940 was sent by the Serbian Orthodox Church to the United States of America as Serbian Orthodox Bishop of North America. Antonije remained at Visoki Dečani throughout World War II, somehow surviving German, Italian, Albanian and Bulgarian raids.

It was always evident that Abramović's grade school education prevented him from accomplishing his life's ambition—to become a Metropolitan. There is no record of him being a candidate for the position of Metropolitan of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral in 1961.