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Stefan Lazarević

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Despot Stefan, Stefan Lazarević (in Cyrillic: Стефан Лазаревић) (1374-1427) was the son and heir to Lazar (Cyrillic: Лазар), the Serbian prince who died at the Battle of Kosovo against the Turks in 1389, and princess Milica (Cyrillic: Милица) from the subordinate branch of the Nemanjić (Cyrillic: Немањић) dynasty. He was the first European-style knight in Serbia and also a poet.He introduced knight tournaments,modern battle tactics and firearms in Serbia.

Despot Stefan Lazarević's Coat of Arms 1415 AD

Stefan become Prince in 1389, and participated as an Ottoman vassal in the Battle of Rovine in 1395, the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 and in the Battle of Angora in 1402. He became Despot of Serbia in 1402. In 1403 he proclaimed Belgrade the capital.Stefan defeated and kill Bayezid son Musa in Battle of Despotovac in 1406.After battle Serbia had peace to Ottomans for a long time.Stefan II became a ally of Hungaryand a knight of a special order, so when the Hungarian king Sigismund renewed the Order of the Dragon (Societas draconistrarum) in 1408 Despot Stefan Lazarević was the first on the list of members.

Under his rule Novo Brdo in Kosovo became the economic center of Serbia where in he issued a Code of Mines in 1412. In his legacy, Resava-Manasija monastery, (Pomoravlje District) he organized the Resava School, a center for correcting, translating and transcribing books.

Stefan Lazarević died suddenly in 1427, leaving the throne to his nephew Đurađ Branković. His deeds eventually elevated him into sainthood, and the Serbian Orthodox Church honors him on August 1st.

Apart from the biographical notes in charters and especially in the Code on The Mine Novo Brdo (1412), Stefan Lazarević wrote three original literary works: The Grave Sobbing for prince Lazar (1389); The Inscription on the Kosovo Marble Column (1404); and A Homage to Love (1409), a poetic epistle to his brother Vuk.

Quotes

File:Letter of love.jpg
Facsimile of Despot Stefan's A Homage of Love to his executed young brother Vuk (Lazarević) 1409 AD
Despot Stefan Lazarević
A HOMAGE TO LOVE
1.

I, Despot Stefan,
To the sweetest, most beloved one,
Inseparable from my heart,
Always wished for, and much
Possessed of wisdom and
To my kingdom true,
(The name being said)
A warm greeting in the Lord
And unsparingly therein
Our merciful gifts.

6.

As David rightly sang:
Love is "like precious ointment upon the head,
That ran down upon the beard,
Even Aaron's beard:
As the dew of Hermon
That descended upon the mountains of Zion".

2.

The Lord hath made both
spring and summer,
As also the Psalmist sang,
And all their delights:
The birds their swift and joyous flight,
The hills their peaks,
The groves their length,
The fields their breadth,
The fields their breadth,
The air its beauteous soft sounds,
And the soil its gifts
Of fragrant flowers and grass,
And for man's being itself
its renewal and joy;
But who is worthy enough
to recount all this?

7.

Youths and maidens,
For love so apt,
Embrace love,
But with hurt to youth or maidenhood,
Whereby our nature unites with godliness
And thus becomes divine.
Do not aggrieve, the Apostle saith,
The sacred Holy Spirit,
Which you publicly acclaimed
As at a baptism.

3.

But all these
And other wondrous works of God,
Which even the sharpest mind
Cannot perceive,
Love all surpasses
And no wonder is it
For God is love,
As saith John, the son of thunder.

8.

Together we were, and close to each other,
In body and in soul,
But did the mounts dissever us
Or the rivers?
As David saith: "Ye mountains of Gilboa,
Let there be no dew, neither let there be rain
For Saul you did not save
Nor Jonathan".
O the mercifulness of David,
Hear, ye Kings, o Hear!
It is Saul you are bewailing, o found one?
For I found, saith the Lord,
A man after my own heart.

4.

No room in love is there forties,
For did not Cain, a stranger to love,
say unto Abel:
"Let us go into the field".

 9.

May the winds collide with the rivers,
And run them dry,
As did the sea for Moses,
The judges as for Joshua,
And Jordan for the arc of the covenant.

5.

Pure and keen
Is the work of love,
And every virtue it surpasses.

10.

And may we be together again,
And see each other again,
And meet again in love,
For His sake,
For whom glory be with the Father
And the Holly Spirit
Forever and ever.
Amen

(Translated by Vida Janković) (1409 AD)

(Quotation from: Serbian Literary Magazine, Relations, No 4/1998, with permition of Executive Editor)

See also

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