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

it is no shame to uncover the head before Him who knows our heart, how much less is it so before men. Therefore among them truly all is extraordinary, and the rest too is according to Paul, 'whatever is honorable, whatever is pious, whatever is choice' (Phil. 4:8), and there may be found all that uplifts, and especially love, which is the head of every virtue." "And I shall speak further," continues Constantine the Philosopher, "of a work of a higher degree among those who imitate the angelic life, that is, I shall make mention also of the monks, who have known how to exchange all the beauties of the world for Christ alone, the beautiful and most fair, with Whom they adorn themselves. They live in wondrous deserts and monasteries, so that they move even those who are very slothful to come to them. Among them are many chosen ones who keep the holy virtues in the midst of these monasteries. They have many places of silence, according to the great Ephraim (the Syrian), and they converse with the rustling of leaves and with the birds and the water. Among them there are many monks who unceasingly in deed hymn and glorify God in Trinity, as the Angels glorify Him with unceasing voices, so that one may sing of them: 'The hills shall gird themselves with joy and the deserts shall blossom fair' (Ps. 64:12). These brought forth also the great ones: Simeon and Sava, that great and honorable hearing and telling, who surpassed all human nature in that they despised it and in that they labored in ascetic struggle. Here is every beauty of human nature in God, and the virtues are here, for these two (Simeon and Sava) were crowned from the beginning with virtuous labors, and their labors merit many and worthy praises. For they did not leave villages and homes, that is, small things, but so great a dominion and wealth, and the leading of armies and the height of the throne, and the rest of the greatness of power, and they took up their cross upon their shoulder and went forth, rejoicing in Him who leads them toward another kingdom, better than the one here. And the two of them, Simeon and Sava, brought a multitude of their children to God. But to number their virtues is the same as to number the sand of the sea." Praising thus the Serbian land and its inhabitants, the Despot's biographer Constantine immediately adds: "Turn your ear to listening, yet not to listening to me who speak these things, but to God who does that which no one else can do. For it is not we who adorned this land with words, nor the inhabitants who are upon it, but God who from the beginning creates all things and wisely orders them. And one must know that, as this land is adorned more than all other lands and surpasses all others, so also the inhabitants who are upon it fulfill in deeds the words of the Gospel and of the angels. And above all this, higher still and more extraordinary was a certain divine Providence over this holy man, that is, over Despot Stefan, of whom we now wish to tell from what root he was a shoot, and how, having blossomed in our time, he ruled, and how he was a fulfiller of the aforementioned things after the example of Sava, equal to the apostles, and of Stefan and the others of the same name from the line of those who feared the Name of God." Beginning at last to speak of the very parents of Saint Stefan the Despot, that is, of the Serbian Prince Lazar and Princess Milica, the biographer Constantine says: "Here one must begin a story sweet to all and dear to hear. Here the Serbian land brings forth a fruit worthy of itself, a fruit in which it took pride for a long time, not only as in a lord (a master), but also as in a dear father and a brave companion, wise and in all things most meek. This is that great and glorious Lazar, whose name was the same as his son's, that is, Stefan, which means crowned and wreathed with every good. For he was not praiseworthy in one thing and in another