The Life of the Holy and Right-Believing Stefan the Tall, Despot of Serbia

brother Vuk. He rose up and rebelled against his elder brother and God-crowned lord, demanding of him half of the land and the cities. Moreover, he fled to the Turkish sultan of the time, Süleyman, asking of him an army against Stefan. After him he drew also his nephews the Brankovići, and they too rose against their uncle the Despot. This was after the death of their blessed mother, who once before had already set right a similar sin of Vuk’s. But the mother was no longer on earth, and sorrow and distress weighed upon the holy soul of the Despot. For he said within himself: how shall I go out to battle against my brother? How, if I defeat him, shall I not be guilty of shedding a brother’s blood? This exceeding sorrow of the Despot was described by his biographer Constantine, and the Despot himself expressed it in part in his renowned “Homily on Love.” Here first is what Constantine writes of it: “And then, after the departure of that aforementioned mediator (that is, after the death of St. Milica), there was peace and security; but he who had raised Cain against his brother Abel (that is, the devil) did not rest, although Abel had done him no wrong. That same one raised up here too the aforementioned Vuk, and he obtained from the Turkish emperor a multitude of soldiers, so to speak all his forces. The emperor Süleyman had then taken the eastern regions as well, and Vuk came to him and said: ‘I will strike at my brother Stefan, so that either he gives me half of the paternal land and cities, with which I shall serve your empire, or I shall plunder the land and lay it waste.’ And Süleyman fulfilled this request of his most speedily. And he sent with him one who from the beginning had been a shedder of Christian blood, who bears the same name as the Ishmaelites in wars, who in the great battle on the river called Maritsa was also a cause of the shedding of blood (this was the commander Evrenos), and he sent other chosen commanders as well. And so they came. But Despot Stefan did not wish to give the pious flock, which the Lord had freed from slavery, once more into slavery to be torn apart. And what happened after this? They passed through all the Serbian land like wild beasts, plundering, cutting down, destroying. They demolished some cities too, and what was most grievous was that the battle was not with barbarians, but a battle not easily fought, a battle with those of one’s own tribe. For even though those who came were a multitude, yet the Despot many times crushed them and struck terror into their hearts. But what more need I say? The Despot feared lest he suffer as David did, who cursed the regions of Gilboa that neither rain nor dew should fall upon them (2 Kings 1:21), because there the blood of Jonathan had been shed. And so, defeating him (Vuk), he did not pull the reins tight, lest he be guilty of a brother’s blood. And he came a second time with more of them, so that one could say the prophetic word: ‘O God, the nations have come into Thine inheritance; they have defiled Thy holy temple’ (Ps. 78:1). And since he feared the (fraternal) assault, the pious Despot Stefan did not go out against him. Vuk had drawn to himself some of the nobility, and only a few chosen ones remained unwavering, who informed the Despot that they too had received letters from Vuk, in which on the one hand he promised them gifts and many riches, and on the other frightened them with threats. The Despot, holding his brother’s letter, wept bitterly, and falling before the icon of the Savior, he said: ‘Behold, my Christ, for Thou knowest how unjustly they conspire against me, and my servants betray me, as once Thy disciple Judas did. Preserve them, therefore, all to the end, those few whom Thou hast left with me.’ And many other similar words of compunction and prayer he spoke from the depth of his heart. And this was in the great city of Belgrade, in its inner palace. And they (Vuk and the Turks), passing again through yet more regions, came even near Belgrade and plundered a great multitude and ruined all the land. And when the Despot saw that an evil was occurring that would not pass, he consented and divided