The Charters of Despot Stefan to Hilandar Monastery

is written on parchment and is kept in the archive of the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos. This charter too was first published by Dimitrije Avramović in the middle of the 19th century; after that, several more editions of this precious document appeared, and the text of the charter has been translated several times into modern Serbian.

The Charter of Despot Stefan to the Hilandar Monastery from 1406

By the mercy of my great Lord Jesus Christ, by the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos and by the prayers of my holy lords and fathers and forefathers and founders Simeon and Sava, the right-believing Despot Stefan, lord of all the Serbs and of the Danube lands, and most intimate founder of the great Serbian imperial monastery which is on the Holy Mountain of Athos. I, after my youthful age and tender nails, when God by [His] providence was doing all things for my benefit, was let into many fierce and unbearable trials, and indeed even mortal ones, to which the heavenly elements and well-nigh the whole universe are witnesses and hearers, and from all of them the Lord delivered me and will yet deliver me. But concerning these things that had to be and that I shall suffer, let it be said: In these dark clouds, toward the most radiant rays of the sun - the virtues, I mean, of my father and lord, my Holy Prince - I and those under my rule looked scarcely and with toil, though we strove to emulate him, wretched with hardship and outside of goodness. O, what loss! "For God loveth a cheerful giver," as the divine apostle said [2 Cor. 9, 7]. And now the great treasuries of God's goodness were opened to us, and we were pacified and found rest, and the dark clouds dispersed, and the sun shone upon us. And let us say with the apostle: "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation" [2 Cor. 6, 2]. And the islands were renewed, and a new heaven and a new earth for me, according to Isaiah [Is. 65, 17; 66, 22]. And I was thankful to God and shall yet be, aided by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And thus I was crowned by God as autocrat and ruler of my father's domain and steward of the expanse of the Serbian land, and I strove after my father's virtues while I was in this establishment and state. At that time there came to me from my venerable monastery the most honorable among the monks, the elder kyr Jovan, and the most honorable among the priest-monks, the priest kyr Teodor, and they set forth before my majesty the great grief of the monastery over the interruption of the Novo Brdo revenue, which my father and lord, the Holy Prince, filled with joy, had donated to the monastery. And behold, when my majesty considered it, I did not allow my holy monastery to be deprived of the abundance of Novo Brdo, which the earth richly bestows upon my majesty by divine command.