Сава Вуковић, депутат Ријеке на Темишварском сабору и сабору угарских сталежа

Abstract

Although Sava Vuković, one of the founders of the Orthodox Community in Rijeka, had been an inhabitant of Novi Sad for over ten years, the worshipers of Rijeka’s Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas elected him as their deputy in mid-July 1790 to the Church Congress at Timişoara. Already at the fi rst session of the Congress (21 August/1 September), Sava Vuković put forth a proposal concerning the status of Serbs in Rijeka, in which they sought for themselves the status of citizens (burghers). With the assistance of Metropolitan Stevan Stratimirović, who had been chosen as bishop (vladika) at the Timişoara Congress, Sava Vuković succeeded in having his family confi rmed as members of the Venetian nobility. Th ereaft er, Sava Vuković, now as a nobleman and a Magyar, made a proposal to improve trade at the Hungarian Diet on 10 July 1791, together with Rijeka’s delegates (who were also members of the Hungarian nobility). Interestingly, all persons mentioned in connection with the Timişoara National Congress and the Hungarian Diet belonged to the Rite of Strict Observance Rite of the Freemasons!