PRISON CHAPLAINS’ SERVICE FOR THE ORTHODOX PRISONERS IN MONTENEGRO FROM THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY UNTIL 1915

Abstract

With the development of the legal system in Montenegro, during the last two decades of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the issue of chaplain’s service in prisons was regulated as a specific segment. The paper presents the developmental trajectories of the legal formulation and the competence of service of the Orthodox priests in prisons in Montenegro, in the case of spiritual needs of the members of the Orthodox faith. The persons from the church structures who performed a duty of naming prison chaplains were specified – Metropolitans Ilarion and Mitrofan, as well as the acting priests from Cetinje and Podgorica, for the prisons which existed in those two towns. The paper also provides an analysis of the text of the Legal act on the duties of priests in prisons and the sermon of moralities given for the death row convicts. Since this is the first scientific study based on the authentic historical documentation, it represents a significant contribution to a comprehensive overview of the development and structure of the legal system in Montenegro until 1918.