부산대학교 도서관

It has been a long time since Житије деспота Стефана Лазаревића(The Hagiography of Despot Stefan Lazarević) has been established inhistoriography as the paramount historic source regarding the period betweenthe end of the 14th century and the first half of the 15th century. The abundanceof data provided by it, not only on the life of prince and despot Stefan, but aboutthe other persons, phenomena and events, exceeds the chronological andbiographic frame of an only locally significant person’s hagiography. Themanner in which Constantine the Philosopher in his work depicted one of themost dramatic events from the end of the 14th century, i.e. the Christianvictimisation at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, differs from his detaileddescriptions of the other events that Stefan Lazarević took part in. A comparativedisplay observation of the event within the very source, as well as by comparingit with the other relevant sources of the western provenience, the issue of thehagiography author’s aim projections has arisen. The fact that Constantine thePhilosopher described the battle in a reduced way, omitting Stefan Lazarević’scrucial role in the Christian defeat against the Ottomans, brought along thequestion of self-censorship. Certain potentially compromising facts regardingStefan Lazarević in Constantine’s work are certain to have been left out. Thosefacts could have cast some doubt on the creation of his Christian cult.Having taken into consideration all the relevant factors, the time of itsorigin (the fourth decade of the 15th century) as well as the endangered positionof the Christian states by the Ottomans, the inner analysis of the hagiographiccontents and the comparison with the other available sources, we have derivedthe conclusion that Constantine the Philosopher, most likely led by the higher,Christian ideal, purposefully omitted Stefan’s key role in the Battle of Nicopolisin which the conflict was resolved in favour of the ‘infidels’ and after whichthe persecution of the Christian captives took place. The other presumptionaccording to which Constantine, although being very well-informed even onthe events preceding the rule of Stefan such as the Kosovo Battle, had no clueof Stefan’s role at the Battle of Nicopolis, remains almost not plausible at all.