The Life and Deeds of the Ever-Remembered Despot Stefan

wars, and every people made ready for battle.⁵⁷ And we cried out to the Lord because of their clamor, and from a small spring there came to be a great water and a great river; light and the sun shone forth, the rivers rose and swallowed up the glorious. As this was so, wise envoys were sent, and that one /the sultan/ said within himself, like Nebuchadnezzar: I shall grasp the inhabited world in my palms like an egg. The envoys agreed with the most pious lady /Milica/, and (this) was also counseled by the patriarch, the whole council of church dignitaries and all the synklitos, that the youngest /daughter/ Olivera be given as wife to Amurat the Great /Bayezid/, so that the flock that bears the name of Christ might be saved from the ravenous wolves. To the autocrat /Bayezid/ there went with his sister /Olivera/ also her ever-remembered brother Stefan/. From that time the Serbian land was enslaved, for Stefan himself, with his brother Vuk, with his nobility and with others, went every year to pay homage to him /the sultan/. However, the great emperor from that time (did not act) like Maximian, who showed false love to Constantine the Great in order to destroy him (the more easily), but he behaved toward him sincerely and with pure love, as toward a beloved son, as thou shalt find in (a certain) chapter. And before all the eastern (rulers) he gloried in this one /Stefan/ as in a second sun or a most radiant morning star.

24. Worthy (of all) glory, the most wise mother /Milica/, who surpassed many chosen mothers, remained, as Solomon said, a valiant woman; she possessed all the virtues, as all those around her know who sought mercy at her hands, expecting to receive it. Holding great power, she understood also worldly affairs, in which it is not easy to find one's way; in beauty she was not only a woman, but she also (gave) counsel like Disseus.⁵⁸ And who shall number the divine and sacred adornments with which she endowed churches and monasteries! Who shall not marvel, seeing her union with those who fix their gaze upon God; in her deeds she surpassed the commandments (of God), striving toward (yet) greater things.

25. And what shall I say of (Stefan), who shone forth (from Lazar and Milica), showing forth very many of their (virtues) and having overcome, before all, all those who came? He was destined to be many-sided, and more (than is) the nature of the fruits (of) the trees that grow beside a spring.

26. Beginning to speak of him, I thought it as though I were casting myself into ocean currents that cannot be swum across and that are unexplored; yet, though lashed by the waves of life, I set out upon the voyage, that at the end I might receive some honor. For we did not come from childhood to serve him, and so we are not able to speak of what was before.

27. He was exceptional even as a youth; he was brought up by the most pious and from day to day showed that he would be gifted in all things: in what he said, and in what he did, and in what demanded great effort. And as they tell of Alexander, son of Philip /Alexander of Macedon/: when (his) father was waging war somewhere, he complained to his companions of his age, saying: "My father will show forth heroism in everything, and for me nothing will remain." So too this one /the Despot/, as a boy, looking at the church (which his father had raised) used to say: "I shall raise a greater and more beautiful one." Of battles he (spoke) in like manner; and he spoke words that resembled prophecies; simply put, in every skill, whether (it was)