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The Saga of Kosovo

Part #2 (out of 7).

Back to: The history of Kosovo.

Christ's words about the road of suffering which leads to the Kingdom of Heaven reach - through the spiritual self-denials of the first Serbian saints and through the descriptions of the poets - their culmination in the act of the martyr-death of Knez Lazar at Kosovo.

The Serbs did not surrender to the Turks in 1389, nor did they accept the status of vassals. They instead chose to fight, since they, as a people, had well-developed spiritual values in all spheres of life - Church, state, culture, and art. Aware of the fact that a man who possesses spiritual values cannot be a slave, they chose to accept self-sacrifice and death, which is not considered a defeat, but emergence of spiritual idealism - a source of new life and never-broken hope in the final triumph of justice and truth, of those values which belong to the Kingdom of Heaven.

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Narthex, Pec

 
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Patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic,
who led (1690) the great migration of Serbs from Kosovo.

 

 

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Fresco, Despot Stefan Lazarevic
(ruled 1389-1427), son of Prince Lazar,
Manasija Monastery.
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St. Euphemia
Gracanica Monastery 14th C.

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The Gospel of St. Matthew, 15th c.

 apost_priz.jpg (29889 bytes)

Apsidal fresco, Church of the Mother of god, Pec, c 1335.
Vaulted section: Mother of God enthroned between archangels.
Middle section: Communion of the Apostles.
Lover section: Hierarchs - St. sava, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Basil The Great, St. John Chrysostom, St. Athanasius of Alexandria and St. Nicholas of Myra.
Side sections:  Stylite saints.
At edge of vault: In roundels, episcopal saints.

 
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Lower section of arch: The Last Supper, Pec, 1335
Lunette: The Twelve Apostles, Pec, 1335.
Spandrels: Two of the authors of the Synoptic Gospels, Pec, 1335

 
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Communion of the Apostles, Church of the Ljevska Mother of God, Prizren, 1310.

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Icon of Ss. Cosmas and Damien, Pec Monastery Treasury, 1673/74
(outer panels representing scenes from the lives of thses saints).
 

 
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Fresco, King Dusan, Queen Jelena and their son Uros, Decani, 1335-1350.

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Fresco, Dormition of the Virgin Mary, Decani, 1335-1350.

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