Archbishop Danilo
Archbishop Danilo was a noble son, he went to the monastery opposite the will of his parents. His secular name was not recorded before his passing. He was born around 1270. He was in court service with King Milutin. Prior Nikola deposited him at the Končul Monastery near Raska and gave him his new name Danilo.
He was the prior of the monastery Hilandar, the bishop of Banjska (based in Banjska where he supervised the completion of works at the Monastery of Banjska, the foundations of King Milutin), the bishop of Hum (with his seat in Bijelo Polje, the Holy Church of the Holy Apostles). After the death of Archbishop Nikodim, on September 14, 1314, Danilo was elected the eleventh archbishop of the Serbian. He was in Maglič. During his administration, the Serbian Church, along with many small buildings, encouraged the reconstruction of the Žiča Monastery, the extension of the Peć Patriarchate, as well as the building of the ktitor temple of King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski.
In dynastic conflicts he acted as a reconciliator, he reconciled King Dragutin and King Milutin, then Milutin and Stefan Dečanski. He began writing the great “The Lives of the Serbian Kings and Archbishops ” (his disciples finished), which was supposed to enlarge the royal power and to emphasize the unity of the state and church, and in which as contemporary and historian he presented their biographies and living. He also wrote poetry. He died at night between 19 and 20 December 1337. He was buried in Peć, in the Church of the Nativity, his endowment.
The Serbian Orthodox Church proclaimed Archbishop Danilo a saint, and that day is celebrated on December 20th by the church, that is January 2, according to the Gregorian calendar. At the end of the 20th century, the Committee of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ranked him among the 100 most famous Serbs.
The memorial bust of Archbishop Danilo is placed in front of the Cultural Center Raška.
Musić brothers
Musić is a Serbian noble family from the second half of the 14th century. Their origins are related to the head Musa, who was married to Dragana, sister of Prince Lazar. Three sons were born in marriage: Stefan, Lazar and Jovan. They were governing the northern part of Kosovo around the Ibar, based in Zvečan, which was given to the head Musa by King Uroš. In 1363, they moved their seat in Brvenik to Ibar, after they replaced the fortifications of the towns with Prince Vojislav Vojinović.
Their area covered the Kopaonik massif, with its mines, between the middle course of the Ibar River and the Lab. These brothers are important for Serbian history because they supported the politics of Prince Lazar and as his allies participated in the war against the great mayor Nikola Altomanović. The Musić brothers enjoyed a special position among nobles of the prince Lazarus. The permission of Stefan Musić to smuggle money could be regarded as an extraordinary privilege. The mineral resource wealth was enough for Stefan Musić to develop his own mint, and then establish trade ties with Dubrovnik.
Both took part and died in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. The deaths of the brothers Stefan and Lazarus survived their younger brother Metropolitan Jovan, whose date of death is unknown.
The Musić brothers built the Nova Pavlica Monastery not far from Brvenik on the Ibar, by the reputation of the monument to the Stara Pavlica Monastery. The Nova Pavlica was a women’s monastery and in it were buried Stefan and Lazar Musić and their mother Dragana as the nun Theodosius.
Dobrivoje Božić
Dobrivoje Božić was a mechanical engineer, inventor and designer of the first modern brakes for braking railway vehicles. He was born on December 23, 1885 in Raška, where he finished elementary school. He finished high school in Kragujevac and studied in Germany at the Technical College in Karlsruhe and Dresden. Rudolf Diesel, the famous diesel engine designer, also taught him at Karlsruhe. After completing the study in 1911, Dobrivoje Božić returns to Serbia and the engineering work starts at the railway workshop Nis, where at the same time his research work in the area of braking of railway vehicles begins.
He invented a railroad braking system that was first installed in our trains in 1913 and in the same year he patented his invention in Berlin. After a series of tests, on the Zagreb-Rijeka line, and resistance from his solution by the Germans and the French, in 1928 his patent was granted to the braking system by the International Union of Railways, as the famous brakes “Božić” and the same year it was applied in international traffic. His braking solutions for railroad vehicles have become the basis for all types of applied airborne traffic brakes up till now. Brakes, today of large manufacturers, have just perfected copies of the “Božić” brake.
He was a warrior, a volunteer of Balkan wars. After World War II, he lived and worked in the United States, where he finally returned to Belgrade in 1964, where he passed away in 1967.
Helen of Anjou
Helen of Anjou was the wife of the Serbian King Uroš I and the mother of the kings Dragutin and Milutin. She was born in 1236. The origin of Serbian Queen Helen of Anjou has not been fully explored.
Helen got married in 1250 approximately to King Uroš I, the youngest son of King Stefan the First-Crowned. In order to receive his bride more ceremonially, King Uroš ensured that along the road that led the Ibar valley, many fragrant blue lilacs were planted, which, in addition to beauty and scent, would remind her of her native Provence, and that the wedding would be in spring when they bloom. After the death of King Uroš, Queen Helena for a while ruled the regions: Zeta, Trebinje, Plav and Poibarje. The queen had her army, the administrative apparatus, the state seal, her chancellor. She was highly respected by the ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church, as well as among the rulers of the neighboring countries. In her court, she founded the first female school in Serbia at that time, where poorer girls learned the needlework and other jobs, as well as literacy and music. She also had a well-known book store in her court, that is, a library. In addition to the castle in Brnjak, Helen of Anjou also had the town of Jelač on Rogozna. The most famous of her foundations is the Gradac Monastery near Raška (late XIII century). She settled in the church of St. Nicholas in Shkoder, and as a nun and died on February 8, 1314.
The legend says that after three years of her death, she appeared in one monk’s dream, and when her grave was opened, the body was found as preserved “as in dew”. Since that year 1317, she is celebrated as a saint on October 30 through the ecclesiastical calendar, that is on November 12, according to the new calendar. Queen Helena is the only woman in Serbian history to whom the special hagiography is dedicated written by the Serbian archbishop Daniel II as hagiography of the first Serbian queen who became a saint.
Sveti Sava
Saint Sava, by birth Rastko Nemanjić, was born around 1175 in the vicinity of the Golija Mountain range. He was the youngest son of the great mayor Stefan Nemanja and the first Serbian archbishop, the brother of the kings Vukan and Stefan the First-Crowned. Unlike his father, who was devoted to the creation and strengthening of the state, despite receiving from his father Zahumlje for administration, one day he fled to the Holy Mountain, settled down in the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon and became the Holy Savior, the greatest Serbian saint. Later on, with his father, who in the meantime settled down and got the name Simeon, built the monastery Hilandar, the first and only Serbian monastery on the Holy Mountain.
St. Sava remained especially remembered in the Serbian history by the fact that the autocephaly of the Serbian church was realized, and the patriarch of Zagreb, who granted him a permit in 1219, declared him as the first Serbian archbishop. Archbishop remained until 1233. In addition to the monastery Hilandar, he built another 14 monasteries, which left him recorded as the head of the first Serbian spiritual community on the Holy Mountain.
On his return from one of the pilgrimages from the Holy Land in 1236, his death took him in the then Bulgarian capital Veliko Tarnovo. His relics were transferred to the monastery of Mileševa by the nephew, King Vladislav in May 1237, until they were taken to Belgrade in the year 1594 and burned there in Vračar. In Serbia, the day of his death according to the Gregorian calendar (January 27) is celebrated as the Day of Education. After the liberation from the Turks on Vračar, a temple dedicated to the Holy Sava was erected, in memory and gratitude for everything that St. Sava did for his people and the church.
Stefan Nemanja
Stefan Nemanja is one of the most important Serbian rulers, the creator of a powerful Serbian state and, together with his son Sava, one of the founders of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is known that Stefan Nemanja was the fourth and youngest son of the Serbian ruler Zavid and was born in Ribnica on Morača in 1113. After Zavina’s death, Nemanja inherited by his father’s will the most eastern part of the Serbian principality, from Ras to Niš.
The great mayor Stefan Nemanja united and expanded the Serbian lands, set the supreme authority on new material and spiritual grounds. He succeeded in creating a Serbian state from the Adriatic to Sofia and Pernik. Serbian economy and culture have flourished. His reign is characterized by the emergence of an authentic Serbian style in sacral architecture, known as the Raška style, which begins with its rise of the Đurđevi Stupovi monastery and Studenica monastery. Having gained autonomy of the state, the great Serbian statesman withdrew from power, leaving his son Stefan. After being immersed, Nemanja (monk Simeon) lived for some time in Studenica. At the invitation of his son Sava, he went to the Holy Mountain, where, along with the Sava, he built the Hilandar Monastery, which became one of the most important monasteries in the Holy Mountain, and to this day has remained the foundation of Serbian spirituality and statehood.
He died on February 13, 1199 in Hilandar, where he was buried. Considering that his body remained preserved in the grave, Sava transferred him to Studenica, where, on several occasions, a scented oil appeared – a holy myrrh. Also, miraculous healing of some diseases occurred, so Simeon took the epithelium Mirotočivi (Myrrh-streaming) and was canonized, i.e. proclaimed holy.
Stefan Nemanjić
Stefan Nemanjić, nicknamed Prvovenčani (first-crowned Nemanjić), was a medieval Serbian ruler (the great mayor of 1196-1217 and king 1217-1228), who raised Raška to the status of a kingdom. He was born around 1165 as the second son of the great mayor Stefan Nemanja and his successor. The reign of Stefan took place in a sign of great success, the acquisition of the Royal Crown (1217) and the proclamation of the autocephaly of the Serbian church (1219). Ruling, he united warlike ability and diplomacy. He also recorded difficult moments like those at the beginning of the reign when he had to leave the throne and go to exile (1202) and to fight to regain it (1203-1204). Brother Sava helped him a lot in governing, he was his advisor and friend. Stefan was a writer (he wrote the writings of his father Simeon, Stefan Nemanja’s biography from birth to death) and ruler, cultural worker and warrior. The ring of King Stefan the First-Crowned, made of gold and decorated with filigree braids, is preserved along his relics in Studenica. Stefan the First-Crowned built the monastery Žiča.
He ended his life by becoming a monarch in last moments, with the name of monk Simon. He died on September 24, 1228. He was buried in Studenica monastery, and later his relics were transferred to the monastery Žiča. The Serbian Orthodox Church celebrates him as a Prepodobni (holy monk) every September 24th, ie. October 7th according to the new calendar. His eldest son, Stefan Radoslav, succeeded him on the throne.
2019