It is interesting that in Romania there are two villages named Manasia - one in the commune of Cernătești (Rom. Cernăteşti) in Buzău County (Rom. Buzău), and the other in the commune of Manasia in Ialomița County (Rom. Ialomiţa); in this second village stands the Church of the Ascension of the Lord (Rom. Biserica „Înălțarea Domnului” din Manasia) from 1842, an endowment of Jevrem Obrenović (1790–1856), the youngest brother of Prince Miloš (1780–1860). There is one more peculiarity concerning the naming of Manasija Monastery. The monastery of Resava is mentioned in the Belgrade Chronicle I as "the new lavra of Resava, of the Holy Trinity" [SSRL 625б]. Such a designation points to the unique place that Manasija Monastery occupied in the Serbian ecclesiastical and cultural circumstances of its time. Manasija was raised as a complex monastic ensemble, as a monastic city of its own kind. The monumentality of this monastery testifies to the prominent role intended for it from its
founding, and in that sense it is not surprising that, as the Serbian manuscript tradition testifies, Manasija is regarded as a lavra. Because of its exceptional character, because of its magnificence and grandeur, because of the prominent place it occupies in Serbian architecture, in the Serbian cultural and ecclesiastical context, Manasija Monastery is also called imperial. From the literature it can be seen that this epithet was used for Manasija Monastery as early as the 19th century. Thus Joakim Vujić, giving in his travel account the basic facts about Manasija Monastery, calls the endowment of Saint Despot Stefan an imperial monastery, and writes the following: „Ово е еданъ царскїй манастирь, кога основатель быо е Деспотъ Стефанъ Кнеза Лазара сынъ“ ("This is an imperial monastery, whose founder was Despot Stefan, the son of Prince Lazar"). Other authors of the past also called Manasija Monastery imperial. For Evgenije Simeonović, Manasija is "one of the most renowned endowments of the Serbian kings and emperors"; still more strikingly, for Josif Veselić Manasija is one of the most renowned endowments "of the Serbian emperors". According to a classification from the second half of the 19th century, by which the Serbian monasteries were arranged by their importance into three categories, Manasija Monastery was ranked within the Eparchy of Belgrade in the first group by significance, that is, the group of the most significant monasteries, as an imperial endowment - a lavra, together with the monasteries of Gornjak, Kalenić and Ravanica. In the statistical surveys and schematisms of that period, Manasija Monastery in the second half of the 19th century is called an imperial monastery - a lavra, which can be seen in the state calendars of the time, and which, on the other hand, is confirmed by the research of Lj. Popović, G. Bojković and N. Đokić, and other researchers. This categorization of Manasija Monastery as an imperial endowment - a lavra was carried over into the following century, and so Manasija is also called thus in publications of the 20th century. Thus Manasija Monastery, in the literature, from a lavra and an imperial monastery became known also as an imperial lavra. Such a designation is of course not historical, but it should not be understood as a historical forgery - rather as a poetic expression. Namely, the authors who in the past first used the epithet "imperial" for Manasija Monastery did so wishing to underscore that Manasija is a ruler's endowment.
These authors did not intend to falsify anything (on the contrary - they strove as far as possible to shed light on the monastery's past). These authors wished to emphasize the cultural and historical significance of the monastery. In that sense, such words and such expressions should be understood not in a strictly literal manner but artistically, poetically, metahistorically - as a poetic expression of these authors' admiration, in the service of underscoring the magnificence of Manasija Monastery, or for the sake of emphasizing its exceptional significance and special place in the history of Serbian church life and culture.