Lives of the Serbian Saints

tr. Yanich and Hankey, 1921

8. The Life of the Holy and Blessed Martyr, Tsar Urosh

The only son of the first Serbian tsar, Stephen Dushan, was born in 1337, and was called in Holy Baptism Urosh. His mother was Helen, the daughter of John Kantakuzen, the Greek emperor. God gave him a fine heart and soul, and he was so well pleasing to his father, the great Dushan, that he was called while yet a youth to be Serbian king and heir presumptive of the tsar’s throne. Tsar Stephen the Mighty, a man ever fortunate in war and conqueror of the country of the Greeks and Bulgarians, increased the Serbian state from the Danube to the Sea of Marmora, from the Adriatic to the Black Sea, and held beneath his sceptre these lands—Serbia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, Albania, Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Rumania. But the Almighty, to Whom it pertains to bestow the crown of lands, stayed him on his glorious path, and Dushan, who, according to the judgment of men had yet some years to live, fell ill of a sudden of a grievous sickness and soon after died in the year 1355.

When Urosh became tsar, by title the Fifth, he was no more than nineteen years of age. By his wisdom and gentleness he gave good promise on ascending the throne of his father, which seemed so strong. But he must needs have vigour and strength besides the qualities of a good ruler, if he was to hold in obedience the new countries of the Serbian state, which stretched from sea to sea. The rigour of his father, who had held so many countries together by fear, the young tsar replaced with great gentleness, so that he weakened the tsar’s power, which was founded upon force of arms. The nobles, when they buried his father, buried his memory with him, and since there was now no one to fear they took counsel together against the authority of the state and that they might overthrow the godly tsar. There were many signs of evil before he came to the throne: a terrible famine befell the tsardom, and many died; in the same year also there invaded Europe the Ottomon voievodes across the Dardanelle Straits, and after taking for themselves the most fertile of the country in the Greek Empire, they began to menace Serbia and Bulgaria. Then the imperial power of Tsar Urosh, thus already weakened, was shaken by his uncle Sinisha, ruler of Thessaly, who obtained an army from the Greeks and Albanians and rose in rebellion against his tsar, demanding the throne for himself by right of seniority. There was thus civil war. Sinisha, holding to his belief that he had a right to the throne, invaded Zeta with the purpose of taking Scutari, but in this he did not succeed, and he was forced to retire. It seems, however, that his own mother, the Tsarina Helen, was not blameless in this matter, and urged on the civil war, hoping to take for herself a fortified town. This we may know from the fact that when Nikifor, the “despot angel,” rose against Urosh and took Thessaly, it was done with the consent of the tsarina mother, who had given him her sister to wife. The lesser rulers, meanwhile, seeing how matters lay, strengthened their hold on their own countries, and cast off the burden of subjection.

But the most dangerous of these rulers were Vukashin, despot of Hum, and Uglesha his brother. Vukashin held high office and was first in the kingdom after the tsar himself. But his pride was overweening and he began to plot against the tsardom and Urosh. Those wise nobles who were loyal subjects of Urosh found no difficulty in discerning the secret purpose of Vukashin, and early gave good counsel to the tsar to save him from the plot of Vukashin, to wit, that he should take from him the estates he had entrusted to him as soon as might be so as to make him harmless. But the crafty Vukashin, foreseeing their plans against him, delayed not to approach the tsar himself and prepare his mind in advance against the plan of the wise nobles. In this way Urosh not only became the friend of Vukashin, but made him king and held him high in his esteem. So it came about that, either the tsar himself raised up to be king his future murderer, or that Vukashin himself obtained the kingly title by a plot. From that time all the nobles faithful to the tsar left him, and each man thought only how to strengthen himself in his own land. Thus in the space of ten years, during the lifetime of the Tsar Urosh, the Serbian empire was divided into four parts, independent one of another. Urosh himself bore only the name of tsar, for in truth the real tsar was Vukashin.

Now against this false tsar there rose up some of the nobles to dethrone him, or at least to take from him some of the power. In their number was the prince Lazar. This prince, with the help of the Hungarians, took Machva and other parts of Serbia. Tsar Urosh desired to make peace between them, but he was powerless, and was as a voice crying in the wilderness. The unhappy tsar, seeing himself without power, authority or subjects, and having no means of support, left his throne and went to live among some of the nobles who were friendly disposed. Some time he lay in this condition of poverty and misery not to be endured, save that, to the gentle heart of this long-suffering and blameless man, it was endurable because the Lord was his support. He found himself a stranger in his own fatherland; he, to whom rule belonged by right, was powerless; the giver of alms was left himself at the mercy of his own nobles and subjects. The hospitality of Vukashin, to whom he came first, was full of bitterness and contempt and caused him great misery. No longer able to endure such things and hoping to find it somewhat easier, he left Vukashin and came to Lazar, ruler of Machva and Sirmie. But this change of place did not bring a change of lot. Lazar had no love for Vukashin because he had succeeded by his plot in deceiving the tsar when he came to the throne, and had taken his power and shaken and weakened the Serbian state, and then, in his greed for power, had dethroned God’s anointed, Urosh, and changed the bearer of the crown into a slave. This hatred of Lazar for Vukashin knew no bounds, and so the wandering tsar fell a prey to the mercy of strangers and often suffered insult. Wherefore he left the house of Lazar and came back again to Vukashin. But when by this change his miserable lot was no better but rather grew worse, he thought to seek a refuge among the people of Ragusa for his gentle soul, that he might escape these insults. This his purpose was known to Vukashin, who feared lest perchance the tsar, with the help of the people of Ragusa, might come back and punish him and imprison or slay him. So when he heard that the tsar had fled he sent after him his guard to take him again. Which thing they did, and killed him on the second day of December, 1367. Some say the murder was done by Vukashin himself, others say the soldiers did it. The blessed Patriarch of Pech, holding to the written tradition of his patriarchate, tells us that Vukashin himself did indeed slay Tsar Urosh, but not while he was fleeing to Ragusa, but when they were on a hunt, to which Vukashin took him for pastime, in his heart hoping to find then a good time and place to be alone with him and carry out that purpose of his, so terrible to the Lord. So when he found time and place and opportunity, at once he fell upon him and raised his sinful arm, with his heavy wrought arms in his hand, and the long-suffering wearer of the crown fell prostrate and dead to the earth near Narodimye on the field of Kossovo, on the twenty-ninth day of April and the twelfth year of his reign. So ended the son of the great tsar, and such was the death which befell him. In this kind Vukashin repaid his debt to the tsar, son of evil and brother of Satan that he was. And this was the end of the glorious Nemanya dynasty which had ruled the Serbian State for two hundred and twenty years. Our crowned rulers came to an end in this way, because Tsar Urosh had no child.

His body was brought and buried in the church of the Falling Asleep of the Mother of God, near the town Petrich. After some time this blessed sufferer began to show forth his holiness by the miracles which were done at his tomb. Wherefore the faithful took his uncorrupt remains, from which came healing, and guarded them till the coming of the Turks, at which time they brought them to Sirmie and placed them in the monastery Iazak, which is in Frushka Gora, where they rest in peace until this day. Through his prayers may the Lord, who glorified this His saint, have mercy upon us. Amen.