Nikanor Ivanović

Nikanor Ivanović or Nikanor II (Serbian Cyrillic: Никанор Ивановић; 1825–1894) was Bishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Highlands from 1858 to 1860.

Nikanor Ivanović was born in Drniš, where his family came from Njeguši.^[2] He was, probably, taught theology in Zadar. There, before 1857, he was raised to the dignity of archimandrite. Then he stayed in Savina Monastery. In 1857, Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš, the sovereign of the Principality of Montenegro elected him as the secretary and vice chairman of the Montenegrin Senate, and then as the new Metrpolian of Montenegro and the Highlands. This office has been vacant since 1851, when Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, the last hierarch who combined metropolitan dignity with secular power in Montenegro, died. His successor Danilo II decided to change the existing system of state so that Montenegro could be recognized internationally as an independent country (claims to its territory were reported by the Ottoman Empire, claiming that the metropolitan princes only exercised spiritual authority). The decision was supported by the Russian Empire.

In 1860, Prince Danilo I was assassinated in Kotor (then part of the Austrian Empire) and was buried in the Cetinje Monastery.^[3] Metropolitan Nikanor did not appear at his funeral, which resulted in his removal from office by the new Prince Nicholas I.

Despite the historical fact that Nikanor II, for political reasons, did not attend the funeral of Prince Danilo, he was nevertheless depicted in the painting The Funeral Procession of Prince Danilo of Montenegro by Anton Karinger (1862), accompanied by his widow, Princess Darinka. Although Karinger was aware, through the press, that Metropolitan Nikanor Ivanović had not accompanied Danilo’s body to Cetinje, he chose to include him in the composition. On the contrary, he omitted Danilo's daughter, Princess Olga, who was carried on horseback by her mother, in order to preserve the poise, grace, and dignity of Princess Darinka's figure.

In European political iconography and propaganda, the sovereign was traditionally portrayed as God’s anointed ruler on earth. In secular states he lost this sacred prerogative, but assumed instead the role of father of the nation, guardian of its church. In return, a representative of the church was expected to symbolically absolve the deceased ruler and bless his successor. Karinger’s canvas, which emphasizes through its vertical axis the symbolic elevation of the late prince, could not have functioned without the presence of a cleric—hence the fictional inclusion of Nikanor Ivanović.^[4]

The hierarch went to Crimea, Russian Empire and from there to Italy. He died on 9 April 1894 in Gorizia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.^[5]

• Mr. Aleksandar Stamatović: Kratka istorija Mitropolije Crnogorsko-primorske (1219–1999)