Maxim (Vasilijević) of Western America

Bp. Maxim of Western America

Bishop Maxim (Vasilijevic), also Maksim Vasiljevic, is the bishop of the Diocese of Western America under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Previously, he was the Bishop of Hum, Vicar bishop in the Metropolitanate of Dabro-Bosna, in the Republic of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Life

Bishop Maxim graduated from the Theological Faculty of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1993. He continued his education at the University of Athens where he received a Masters of Theology in 1996. Three years later, in 1999 he defended his doctorate at the University of Athens in the field of dogmatics and patristics. He worked for one year on his post‐doctorate degree in Paris and then from 2003 to 2004 at Sorbonne in the field of Byzantine history and hagiography. During this time, he also delved into the theory and practical application of painting at the French Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. Bishop Maxim is docent of the Divinity School at the Theological Faculty of the University of Belgrade, and previously taught Christian anthropology and sociology at the University of East Sarajevo. Bp. Maxim speaks Greek, French, Russian, and English.

Bp. Maxim was elected Bishop of the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America at the regular assembly of the Hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2006. On July 30, 2006, he was enthroned by Bp. Longin of the New Gracanica Metropolitanate, in the Cathedral Church of St. Steven the First-Crowned in Alhambra, California.

In addition to his Archpastoral duties in the Western American Diocese, Bishop Maxim is a Professor of patrology at the St. Sava School of Theology in Libertyville, Illinois. He is the editor of Theology, the journal of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade. He also leads the Diocesan iconographical school, which is inspired by Byzantine and Serbian medieval fresco painting and Fr. Stamatis, a famous iconographer from Athens, Greece.

Bishop Maxim's scholarly studies and articles include essays on the holy Fathers and saints; he has also written on hagiographical and iconographical themes.

Writings

• "An existential interpretation of dogmatics: Theological language and dogma in the face of the culture of pluralism," St. Vladimir's Seminary Quarterly 51 (2007), pp. 395‐422.
• "La conception de la sainteté dans l'oeuvre hagiographique de Syméon le Métaphraste," Revue des Études Byzantines 66 (2008), pp. 191‐207.
• "Holy Icons and the ultimate state of being," Annual 2007 of the Western American Diocese, Los Angeles (2007), pp. 37‐39.
• "The Orthodox Marriage and Family," a lecture given at the KSS Annual Retreat in Jackson, 2007 (to be published).
• "St. John the Chrysostom, Commemoration of the 1600th Anniversary of the Repose of St. John Chrysostom," St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church, November 13‐14, 2007.
• "Ecclesiological provincialism compared to the Church's concrete unity," The Path of Orthodoxy, May 2007.

Succession box: Maxim (Vasilijević) of Western America
Preceded by: none	Vicar Bishop of Hum 2004-2006	Succeeded by: ?
Preceded by: Jovan	Bishop of Western America (Serbian) 2006-present	Succeeded by: —

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Sources

• His Grace Bishop Maxim
• In Los Angeles, the new bishop of the Western American Diocese, Bishop Dr. Maxim (Vasilijevic), is Entrhoned

External link

• Official website of the Serbian Diocese of Western America