in the meantime, Vasilije was elevated to protodeacon by Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta and with that post, he was the supervisor of all deacons in the Metropolitanate of Sremski Karlovci.
In 1749 Vasilije became a suspect when he took too many liberties with the church treasury and the Bačka bishop Visarion Pavlović, the Abbot of Remeta Atanasije Isaijević, and the Kotor providur Ivan Zusta accused him of absconding.
[2] Greek Patriarch Cyrill II appointed Vasilije bishop of Novo Brdo, and then transferred him to the metropolitan in Sarajevo.
With the help of members of the French diplomatic corps, Vasilije was released from prison and managed to escape from Cyprus to southern Dalmatia, and then to Janjevo, from where he went to Montenegro in 1767.
There he met the Russian prince Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgorukov who Montenegro to interrogate the False Emperor Šćepan Mali.