Zarija R. Popović (Gjilan, 5 February 1856 - Belgrade, August 1934) was a Serbian national and educational worker, writer and head of State Statistics.
He was an excellent theology student, the first among his peers, and in the last year, he has ordained as a celibate priest by Metropolitan Mihailo, who recognized Zarija's natural acuity and intelligence for the teaching profession.
After the armed forces left Giljan, Popović went with the Serbian army to quell the attacks on the Serbs during the Serbian-Ottoman War in Vranje, where he remained as a teacher, and then as an administrative clerk at the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Vranje.
He was later twice appointed bishop by the Serbian Orthodox Church, to the Metropolitanate of Skopje and the Diocese of Prizren, but both times refused to accept the challenge, preferring to continue teaching instead.
Two years later, when the department was added to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zarija Popović started working at the Светосавсокој вечерњој школи/Svetosavsokoj večernjoj školi, the Saint Sava Evening School until 1912.