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About the Clerical High School of Saint Arsenije

The Theological College of Saint Arsenije in Sremski Karlovci is one of the oldest and the most important educational institutions among Serbs.

This school is one of the seven seminaries of the Serbian Orthodox Church located in four countries.

At high school, students are educated and brought up in the spirit of sacred tradition to serve the Church, as well as for continuing education at theological faculties and spiritual academies.

Schooling in the seminary lasts 5 years, during which time the students are housed in a boarding school.

This Theological College was the source of the famous Karlovac chanting, which has been in church music for decades. Kornelije Stanković  was the first composer who transfered the Karlovci chanting into sheet music and thus preserve it for new generations.

History

The Theological College of Saint Arsenius in Sremski Karlovci is the heir of the former Karlovac seminarie, as the most important institutions for the education of priests of the Orthodox faith in the Hungarian Monarchy during the last 150 years of its existence.

The first Serbian Orthodox seminary was founded by the Metropolitan of Karlovy Vary, Stefan Stratimirović 1794, which was three years after the founding of the famous Karlovac High School. This seminary will exist until 1872, when it will be closed. Karlovac seminary will be reopened in 1875.

In the second half of the 19th century, the seminary experienced its zenith. At that time, Ilarion Ruvarac was its head as rector, and Jovan Živković was one of the respected professors. At the dawn of the First World War in 1914, the Hungarian authorities abolished the school as a form of pressure on the Serbs across the Sava and Danube rivers. After the war, the seminary, as the patriarchal throne, moved to Belgrade, where it later grew into the Faculty of Theology. In 1964, the seminary was founded again in Sremski Karlovci and took the name of Saint Arsenije Sremac.

Building

Today, the seminary is located in the former building of the Church and People’s Funds, one of the most significant and valuable buildings in the old core of Sremski Karlovci, as a Spatial cultural-historical unit of exceptional importance for Serbia.

The building of Church and People’s Funds was built under the patronage of Patriarch Georgi Branković for the needs of Church and People’s Funds in 1902.

The author of the project was the architect Vladimir Nikolić, who at the turn of the century designed the most magnificent buildings in Sremski Karlovci.

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