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

are: heroism and courage, ability and skill in handling weapons and other military and strategic virtues; then chivalry, wisdom and the gift of oratory in the so-called diplomatic affairs of state. All this Stefan mastered and learned excellently, far better than all others, for he was also more developed in body than all others and keener in mind. Therefore his biographer the Philosopher says of him: "And in matters of warfare and the art of combat, which is not easy for many, in all this he was the first and even showed it to others, for he was perfect in all things. And in beauty of body and in strength he was among his peers as the sun among the stars; and in discourse (i.e. in oratory) he was extraordinary, as no one before. He was such as the all-wise Solomon was when he says of himself: 'I was above all who were before me in Jerusalem' (Eccl. 1:16). For Stefan too was above all in every other quality and especially in the gift of oratory, by which very much is achieved and often won even without a drop of blood. Many times, where armies that fought did not succeed, nor the weapons of many ships, there good enlightenment alone succeeded. Examples of this we have many and everywhere. Purity," the biographer says further, "purifies the soul, and courage, if it is fittingly joined with good learning, and they, united, become indivisible, they always succeed and become, so to speak, something natural and inborn - and all this, it must be said, had been gathered and united in this one (Stefan), so that he was both pure and rich in many virtues. And when he came of age (and began to rule) he covered with the veil of oblivion what had been, and to great things he added yet greater. Usually, when some other man attains even a part of what he had, such a one often fancies himself to be something great. But this man not only did not suffer from it (i.e. from pride), but even in such royal greatness he left out nothing that is profitable, and remained unshaken in the good, fleeing from that which God opposes - which is not at all easy for those who rule - so that even the Angels marveled at him. He did not, then, in anything depart from the right and royal way" (cf. Prov. 8:20). In all these wondrous virtues and qualities, especially in the chivalrous virtues and in the wisdom of rule, Stefan most of all modeled himself on his heroic and wise father, Prince Lazar, who was to him a living example and model, both in youth and later when he became ruler. This the holy Despot himself would later say of himself, with the humility ever proper to him (in the charter to Hilandar Monastery of 1405): "I, from my youthful age and tender nails, when God in His care for me did all things for my profit, falling into many wicked, unbearable, mortal trials, of which the heavenly elements and almost the whole inhabited world are witnesses and hearers, was delivered from them all by the Lord, and am delivered even now. And in those dark sufferings and experiences of mine I with toil fixed my eyes upon the sunlike virtues of my father and lord, my Holy Prince. And if I succeeded in some measure in modeling myself on him, I did it by the help of God." But not only in the chivalrous and royal virtues did Stefan model himself on his father, the Holy Tsar Lazar, but also in that virtue of holy Nemanjić endowment-building and of love for the churches and monasteries of God, of which more will be said later. Now let us mention only that in love and zeal for churches and monasteries the pious Stefan, from his earliest childhood, vied with his holy father. For when his father, Saint Lazar, was raising his endowment Ravanica, little Stefan, in his childlike simplicity and innocence, looking upon it, exclaimed: "I will build one still greater and more beautiful." Sincerely