The Charter of Despot Stefan to Despotess Jevpraksija

By the ineffable mercy and goodness of my Master, my sweet Christ, and by His unutterable and all-merciful care, by which upon me, as also upon the first holy and Orthodox emperors, [He gave] the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, [which] He poured out upon me, and He set me as lord of the Serbian land. Therefore I too, in Christ God the right-believing and Christ-loving lord Despot Stefan, and the pious and Christ-loving sovereign lady and my mother, Lady Jevgenija, and my most beloved brother Vuk, wherever I found [myself] at that time, I had help and succor from the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ and from His All-Pure Mistress, the Sovereign Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.

And the sovereign lady and my mother told me [that] the Despotess and Lady Jevpraksija asks of me that, for the sake of her soul, she may grant some village to the house of the All-Pure Mother of God, the community of the imperial and great monastery of Hilandar, which is on the Holy Mountain of Athos. And since I came to know her good desire concerning her own soul, I took counsel with the sovereign lady and my mother, Lady Jevgenija, and with my nobles, that her requests should not be neglected, but fulfilled with joy and zeal because of her great love and cordiality toward us. I graciously granted her the village of Jabučje in the Župa of Levač, which Mladen Psisin held as a pronoia in the time of my lord and parent, the Holy Prince. And so I granted her this village with its hamlet and with its boundaries, lands and all rights [as they were] in the time of my lord and parent, the Holy Prince. And so I granted her those villages, that she may hold them as her true hereditary estate or purchased property, that she may grant them to the monastery of the All-Pure Theotokos of Hilandar, as we have said above, that those villages may be the property of the imperial and great monastery of Hilandar, as are the other metochia that were granted by my holy lords and founders (ktitors): emperors, and kings, and Serbian lords.

And I entreat him whom God shall appoint to rule after us: whether my brother, or son, or grandson, or one of our kinsmen, nearer or more distant, or, by God's permission, someone a stranger to us - not to alter what is written above but, rather, to confirm it, and that it remain unaltered.

But should anyone dare to destroy what is written above, may the Lord God and the All-Pure Mother of God of Hilandar destroy such a one. And may [She], instead of helping him, be his adversary here, in his earthly life, as well as on the day of the dread examination [judgment] of God the righteous judge. And may he be accursed by All the Saints who have pleased God from all ages. And may he be together with those who said: “His blood [Christ's, be] on us and on our children!” [Mt. 27, 25]. Amen.

In the year 6913 (1405), in the thirteenth indiction.

In Christ God the right-believing and Christ-loving lord of the Serbs Despot Stefan