Despot Stefan - Pious Ruler of the Serbs

The popular and church memory of Saint Stefan Lazarević, Serbian prince (1389−1402) and despot (1402−1427), is especially kept on the day of his liturgical commemoration, August 1 (July 19 according to the Julian calendar). God willing, in a few years six centuries will have passed since the departure of Saint Despot Stefan Lazarević into the embrace of God. This is a significant jubilee and a significant reminder, a testimony that there are values that endure. We do not mean the endurance of Manasija Monastery - which is worthy of all admiration - but the endurance of the memory of the Holy Despot, the eternal endurance of the remembrance of the righteous of which the Psalmist David writes (Ps. 11, 6). Six hundred years have passed since, in the second half of 1424 (such a dating is assumed by the historians Miodrag Purković and Momčilo Spremić), upon his return from Buda, Despot Stefan decided at the State Assembly in Srebrnica under Rudnik to designate his nephew Đurađ as his successor. Aware of the transience of earthly things, the Holy Despot embraced that which does not pass away: communion with God. As a man of communion with God we remember this Holy Despot, and we cherish his memory: especially at Manasija Monastery, one of the greatest Serbian medieval cultural centers, which is most directly connected with the figure of Saint Stefan Lazarević and his legacy,