In the year 1802, Antim Zepos, the former protosingel of the Mitropoly of Heraclion, got appointed metropolitan of Užice and Valjevo. Antim was born in 1762, on the island of Myconos. He arrived to the Mitropoly of Užice and Valjevo shortly after his appointment. The seat was situated at Šabac. Metropolitan Antim undertook his spiritual mission among the body of believers as well as clergy during the usurpation of power on behalf of the janicars in the Belgrade Pashaluk, where the eparchy was located. In 1804, when the First Serbian Uprising broke out, Antim was in Šabac, where the slaughter of the Christian population took place. Antim managed to leave Šabac through mediation of Stratimirović, metropolitan of Karlovci, and soon after joined the Serbian rebels via the Habsbourg Monarchy. Until 1806, he actively participated in the Serbian assembly system, as well as in strivings concentrated upon inciting the believers to join the rebels. In early 1806, his attempts to reach the peaceful capitulation of the garrison of Šabac through mediation in negotiation process failed. At the aftermath of this event he fled for the Habsbourg Monarchy and moved along with his relatives and monks to the Monastery of Bešenovo, after a brief sojourn in Sremska Mitrovica. He was heavily hit by scorbutus during 1807 and 1808. He got amnestied for his previous actions by the Osmanic authorities and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. At that time, his contacts with the leading rebels became less frequent. In 1812, the plan proposed by Karađorđe, according to which he was to be nominated metropolitan of the entire Serbia failed, since he would thus have traspassed the ecclesiastical canons and got deposed of his rank as well as of his eparchy. After the uprising broke down, Antim officially remained in the function of metropolitan of Užice and Valjevo and held his duty until October 1814, when he submitted his resignation.
