Vladika

From Serbo-Croatian vladika.

Vladika (plural Vladikas)

1. (now historical) The head of church and state in Montenegro until 1852; the prince bishop.
   • 1848, Sir John Gardener Wilkinson, Dalmatia and Montenegro, J Murray, page 402:

     On the courtesy and hospitality of the Vladika, indeed, I cannot speak too highly; and the friendly feelings he entertains towards strangers, who are interested in his country, contribute greatly to the pleasure of a visit to Montenegro.

   • 1851, Edmund Spencer, Travels in European Turkey, page 390:

     From this time, Tchernegora, deserted by its hereditary princes, the Government became vested in its spiritual ruler the Vladika

   • 2007, Elizabeth Roberts, Realm of the Black Mountain, Hurst & Co, published 2007, page 15:

     Running roughly parallel with the increasing unity of the tribes was the gradual transformation of the office of metropolitan or Vladika, which having at first been an ecclesiastical position, subordinate to and elected by the tribes, had begun by the early seventeenth century to serve as both a focus for and agent of central authority

   • 2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 585:

     This movement, partly religious and partly political, gave rise to the independent principality of the vladikas.