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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![15.jpg (45482 bytes)](images/15.jpg) Narthex, Pec
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![arsenije.jpg (11881 bytes)](images/arsenije.jpg) Patriarch Arsenije III Carnojevic,
who led (1690) the great migration of Serbs from Kosovo.
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![3.gif (37779 bytes)](images/3.gif) Fresco,
Despot Stefan Lazarevic
(ruled 1389-1427), son of Prince Lazar,
Manasija Monastery.
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![mala_fres.gif (12387 bytes)](images/mala_fres.gif) St. Euphemia
Gracanica Monastery 14th C.
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![zapis.gif (49703 bytes)](images/zapis.gif)
The Gospel of St. Matthew, 15th c.
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![apost_priz.jpg (29889 bytes)](images/apost_priz.jpg) 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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![12apost_pec.jpg (20819 bytes)](images/12apost_pec.jpg) 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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![apost_prizren.jpg (39845 bytes)](images/apost_prizren.jpg) Communion of the Apostles, Church
of the Ljevska Mother of God, Prizren, 1310.
![dec_tre.gif (90101 bytes)](images/dec_tre.gif)
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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![dusan_decani.jpg (37874 bytes)](images/dusan_decani.jpg) Fresco, King Dusan, Queen Jelena
and their son Uros, Decani, 1335-1350.
![christ_ch_decan.gif (156975 bytes)](images/christ_ch_decan.gif)
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Fresco, Dormition of the Virgin
Mary, Decani, 1335-1350.
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