Praise to Prince Lazar
The praise of Prince Lazar ( Serbian Pohvala knezu lazaru ; kyrill. Похвала кнезу Лазару ) is the earliest evidence of Church Slavonic poetry by Serbian editors, written by the Orthodox Christian nun Yefimija .
The text is preserved as gold embroidery on a kerchief for the head of the relic of St. Lazar Hrebeljanovic , which was made around 1402 in the Ljubostinja monastery . Today it is in the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade .
The work was part of the exhibition on late Byzantine art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2004.
Historical background
The text was written just before the Battle of Angora on July 28, 1402. As vassals of Sultan Beyazit I , the two eldest sons of Prince Lazar, Stefan Lazarevic and Vuk, commanded the Serbian armored riding in this battle. The period under Beyazit I, which was characterized by relative peace between Serbs and Turks, was nevertheless not without problems, as the underage Stefan, fifteen at the time of the battle on the Blackbird Field, had to be represented in government affairs by his mother, Princess Milica, and the youngest Stefan's daughter and sister, Maria Olivera Despina was also married to Bayezit. Jefimija met the son of Murad I , who is metaphorically referred to as a snake in the praise of Prince Lazar , during a mission in Serres in 1398 , when she and Princess Milica on a diplomatic mission to seek mercy for the briefly out of favor fallen Stefan asked.
text
The poetic text is written as a prayer and has 26 lines. The original text is in Church Slavonic script by the Serbian editors in gold embroidery on red silk. Thematically, the heavenly help requested for the sons of Lazar in need dominates with the averting of martial suffering and the liberation of the oppressed Christians. First, Lazar is praised as a new martyr who, through his sacrificial death on the battlefield, has achieved two goals: to have exchanged the transience of the earthly throne for participation in the heavenly realm and to eliminate the enemy of the Christians (meaning the Ottoman emir Murat I) to have. Yefimija then asks to call upon Lazar, sanctified by his martyrdom, to God and all heavenly warriors to support the children and the people he left in the upcoming war (against the Mongols). Then Efimija thanks her for the kindness that Lazar showed her as a displaced and homeless stranger at his court.
Leitmotifs
In prayer the Christian idea of a heavenly kingdom and the necessary sacrifices of the believers in this world to achieve a Christian order are expressed. Those living in an unprotected earthly world who are in extreme need are empathically included in the prayer to ask for divine help in the re-establishment of Orthodoxy . As a mediator between the children threatened by earthly death and those threatened by foreign rule, the Christ-like, fatherly, heavenly prince Lazar serves, who has achieved eternal immortality by overcoming his fate as a martyr and can avert the threatening disaster with the help of the holy warriors. The one called for help after his martyrdom on the battlefield is here already the mythologically transfigured saint-like king who continues to defend Christianity against the Turkish invaders. Lazar's figure is therefore already the central figure in the freedom struggle of the generations subsequently oppressed by the Ottomans, which becomes clear in the praise for the violent internal turmoil and the resulting political calls to expel the Turkish enemy.
Cult of saints
After the fall and disappearance of the Nemanjids , the Orthodox Church in Serbia tried to fill the power vacuum created by the canonization of Lazar after the battle on the Blackbird Field and to build his family into a new dynasty. The text of the praise of Prince Lazar, which was created in the monastic environment, forms the spearhead of the worship of a political leader, which was previously unknown in Serbia, and continues to this day, especially in the Serbian Orthodox Church.
meaning
The praise of Prince Lazar is one of the most famous medieval texts in the Serbian language. Jefimija immortalized herself as the first important Serbian poet through praise . She also has a role model function in Serbian culture and is one of the historically best-known Serbians.
The text, characterized by sympathy and emotional turmoil, was illustrated in a variety of ways.
The work is important in two ways. On the one hand it is of high literary quality, on the other hand the text deals with the historical event of the battle on the Blackbird Field and the situation in Serbia immediately afterwards. The text is thus one of the rare historical sources on what happened on the Amselfeld, according to which Murad I only died after the battle had ended, which contradicts Konstantin Kostenecki's interpretation .
Here is a modern Serbian transcription and the English translation:
Кнезу Лазару Похвала
У красотама овога света васпитао си се од младости своје
о нови мучениче кнеже Лазаре,
и крепка рука Господња међу свом земаљском господом
крепког и славног показа те.
Господствовао си земљом отачаства ти
и у свим добротама узвеселио си уручене ти хришћане
и мужаственим срцем и жељом побожности
изашао си на змију
и непријатеља божанствених цркава,
расудивши да је неистрпљиво за срце твоје
да гледа хришћане отачаства ти
овладане Измаилћанима,
не би ли како ово постигао :
да оставиш пропадљиву висоту земаљског господства
и да се обагриш крвљу својом
и и сјединиар.
И тако две жеље постигао јеси:
и ЗМИЈУ убио јеси
и мучења венац примио јеси од Бога.
Не предај забораву вољена ти Сада чеда
која си сирота оставио преласком ТВОЈИМ,
јер откако си ти у небеском весељу вечном,
многе скрби и болезни обузеше вољена ти чеда
и у многим скрбима живот проводе,
пошто су овладани Измаилћанима.
И свима нам је потребна помоћ твоја,
те се молимо моли се заједничком Владики
за воиљена за воиљена за са воиена ти бер
за воиена.
Тугом су многом здружена вољена ти чеда,
јер они што једоше хлеб њихов подигоше на њих буну велику
и у твоја добра заборав ставише,
о мучениче.
Но ако сиНо ако си и прешао из живота овога ,
скрби и болезни чеда својих знаш
и као мученик слободу имаш пред Господом,
преклони колена пред Владиком који те венчао,
моли да многолетни у добру живот
вољена ти чеда проводе богоугодно,
моли да православна вера хришћанска
неоскудно стоји у отачаству ти,
моли победитеља Бога
да победу подари вољеним ти чедима,
кнезу Стефану и Вуку,
за невидљиве и видљиве непријатеље,
јер ако помоћ примимо с Богом,
теби ћемо похвалу и благодарење дати.
Сабери збор својих сабеседника, светих мученика,
и са свима се помоли прославитељу ти Богу,
извести Георгија,
покрени Димитрија,
убеди Теодоре,
узми Меркурија и Прокопија
и четрдесет севастијских мученика не остави,
у чијем мучеништву војују чеда твоја вољена,
кнез Стефан и Вук,
моли да им се пода од Бога помоћ,
дођи, дакле, У помоћ нашу, ма где да си.
Моја мала приношења погледај На
и у многа их урачунај,
јер теби не принесох похвалу како приличи,
већ колико је могуће маломе ми разуму,
па зато и мале награде чекам.
Но ниси тако ти, о мили мој господине и свети мучениче,
био малодаран у пропадљивом и маловечном,
колико више у непролазном и великом,
што примио јеси од Бога,
јер телесно страну мене у туђини
исхрањивао јеси изобилно,
те сада те молим обоје:
да ме исхраниш
и да утишаш буру љуту душе и тела мојега.
Јефимија усрдно приноси ово теби свети.
Eulogy to Prince Lazar
In the beautiful of this world you raised yourself from your youth
O, New Martyr, Knez Lazar,
And Gods's strong and glorious hand
Pointed at you, among all the lords of the earth.
You lorded over your fatherland
And with your goodness delighted
The Christians under your wing.
And with a martyr's heart and a wish for blessing
You went against the dragon
And against the enemies of the holy churches.
Having deemed it unbearable for your heart
To see the Christians of your fatherland
Be coquered by the turks
In order to achieve these
To leave the unstable height of earthly lordship
And tho spill your blood
And to join the soldiers of the heavenly emperor.
And so you achieved two wishes:
You killed the dragon
And received a martyr's wreath from God.
And now do not forget your beloved children
Whom you left orphaned by your transtition.
For since you achieved the bliss in the eternal celestial joy
Many hardship and suffering fell upon your children
And in many misfortunes they spend their lives,
Because they are conquered by the Turks
And they need your help.
For this I beg you,
Pray to the universal ruler for your children,
And for all those who serve them with love and faith,
for they are fettered with worries, your beloved children
Those who ate their bread raised a conspiracy against them
And forgot your goodness,
O martyr.
But since you passed from this life,
You know the worries and sufferings of your children
And as a martyr you are free before God.
Kneel before the Lord who wreathed you,
Pray that your children live long lives
In happiness pleasing to God.
Pray that Orthodox Christian faith amply endures in your fatherland
Ask the victorious God to grant victory
to your beloved children, Knez Stephan and Vuk,
Against visible and invisible enemies.
For if we receive God's help
We will give you praise and gratitude
Call for a meeting of your fellow martyrs
And pray with them to the glorifying God,
Warn George
Move Demetrios
Persuade both Theodores
Take Merkourios and Prokopios
And do not leave out the forty martyrs of Sebaseia
In whose suffering now fight your children,
Knez Stephan and Vuk.
Pray that the help from God be given them.
Come then to our aid, wherever you are.
Consider my small contribution
and count it among many,
For I did not grant you the prais you deserve,
But only as far as my small mind allowed,
And so I expect but small rewards
For you were not selfish, My Lord and Martyr,
In this decaying and short lasting world,
But you are more generous in the everlasting and magnificent
That you received from God.
For you fed me profusely
When I was foreign in a foreign land
And now I beg you both:
To feed me
and to assuage the fierce storm in my soul and body
Jefimija humbly offers you this, O Holy One
Individual evidence
- ^ Byzantium Faith and Power (1261-1557). Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, accessed April 21, 2010 .
literature
- Slobodan Mileusnić: Pall for the face of Prince Lazar (Jefinija's embroidery). In: Helen C. Evans (Ed.) Byzantium. Faith and Power (1261-1577). Yale University Press, New Haven CT et al. 2004, ISBN 0-300-10278-X , pp. 320–321 (exhibition catalog, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 23 to July 4, 2004).
- Slobodan Mileusnić: Jelena, srpska despotica; Efimija, srpska pesnikinja; Jevpraksija, srpska molitvenica. Belgrade, 1993.