The region of Vagenitia and the bishopric of St. Clement

Abstract

At the church council in Constantinople in 879/880 there was mentioned for the first and only time the „bishop of Vagenitia“, the area of the Slavic tribe of the Vajunits. On the other hand, the geographical area with that name is mentioned consistently in historical sources between the 7th and the 15th century. This paper analyzes the data on the geographical location of Vagenitia during the Middle Ages and the church organization in its territory and comes to the conclusion that the main area of Vagenitia between the 11th and the 15th century belonged to the bishop of Himara. Furthermore, it points out that according to the notitia no. 10 from the second half of the 10th century Himara belonged to the same bishopric as Glavinica, further to the north. As the greater area of Glavinica in the lower reaches of the river Vojuša in today‘s southern Albania has been reliably identified as the area of activity of St. Clement and his Slavic diocese established in 893, it can be concluded that the diocese of Vagenitia mentioned in 879, as the diocese of the Slavic tribe of the Vajunits, could be a Byzantine forerunner of the Slavic bishopric of St. Clement.

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