Despot Stefan was buried in his endowment, Manasija Monastery. At the moment of his death, Serbia found itself in a very difficult situation. Ottoman detachments were besieging Novo Brdo and plundering throughout the country, and some were even in the vicinity of Ravanica. The general insecurity and danger of that moment is also described in the Life of Despot Stefan; particularly dramatic are the descriptions of the Despot's grief-stricken, despairing, frightened and panic-stricken contemporaries [ŽDS 87–89], to whom it was clear that without him they would be threatened from all sides. The death of Despot Stefan marked the end of one
of the most significant periods in the history of Serbian statehood, as well as the beginning of new challenges for the Serbian Despotate under the rule of his successor, Đurađ Branković, which would culminate in the fall of the Serbian Despotate.
At a time when the Serbian state was, in the words of the Slavist Vatroslav Jagić (1838– 1923), "the last refuge of Orthodox Christianity on the Balkan Peninsula," the monasteries and cultural centers that developed under the patronage of Despot Stefan Lazarević became not only bastions of spirituality but also nurseries of art and literature. Although the Serbian lands in the time of his reign were exposed to great challenges, such as the disunity of the nobility and the threat of Ottoman expansion, Despot Stefan succeeded in preserving and advancing culture and literature. This period represented the summit of Serbian literature, and the contribution that the Holy Despot
made through his patronage, together with his support for distinguished scholars and writers, was the foremost factor in it.