Having been appointed metropolitan at the age of 33, Stratimirović maintained control over church life decisively and autonomously.

As a religious leader, he inspired independence and supported the First Serbian Uprising, despite leading the clergy remotely from within the Austrian Empire.

Under the strong influence of the conflict for preserving orthodoxy, Stratimirović gradually became more and more conservative and in so doing was opposed to the language reformations of Dositej Obradović, Sava Mrkalj, and Vuk Stefanović Karadžić.

During the First Serbian Uprising he helped the rebels in secret by assisting in the supply of munitions and gunpowder from Prussia.

In June 1804, he informed the Russian court of the plan of reviving the Serbian Empire as a protectorate of Russia.