Jovan Vladimir or John Vladimir (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Владимир; c. 990 – 22 May 1016) was the ruler of Duklja, the most powerful Serbian principality of the time, from around 1000 to 1016. He ruled during the protracted war between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Empire. Vladimir was acknowledged as a pious, just, and peaceful ruler. He is recognized as a martyr and saint, with his feast day being celebrated on 22 May.
Jovan Vladimir had a close relationship with Byzantium but this did not save Duklja from the expansionist Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, who conquered the principality around 1010 and took Vladimir prisoner. A medieval chronicle asserts that Samuel's daughter, Theodora Kosara, fell in love with Vladimir and begged her father for his hand. The tsar allowed the marriage and returned Duklja to Vladimir, who ruled as his vassal. Vladimir took no part in his father-in-law's war efforts. The warfare culminated with Tsar Samuel's defeat by the Byzantines in 1014 and death soon after. In 1016, Vladimir fell victim to a plot by Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was beheaded in front of a church in Prespa, the empire's capital, and was buried there. He was soon recognized as a martyr and saint. His widow, Kosara, reburied him in the Prečista Krajinska Church, near his court in southeastern Duklja. In 1381, his remains were preserved in the Church of St Jovan Vladimir near Elbasan, a church built by Karl Thopia, the Prince of Albania. Since 1995 they have been kept in the Orthodox cathedral of Tirana, Albania. The saint's remains are considered Christian relics, and attract many believers, especially on his feast day, when the relics are taken to the church near Elbasan for a celebration.
The cross Vladimir held when he was beheaded is also regarded as a relic. Traditionally under the care of the Andrović family from the village of Velji Mikulići in southeastern Montenegro, the cross is only shown to believers on the Feast of Pentecost, when it is carried in a procession to the summit of Mount Rumija. Jovan Vladimir is regarded as the first Serbian saint and the patron saint of the town of Bar in Montenegro. His earliest, lost hagiography was probably written sometime between 1075 and 1089; a shortened version, written in Latin, is preserved in the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja. His hagiographies in Greek and Church Slavonic were first published, respectively, in 1690 and 1802. The saint is classically depicted in icons as a monarch wearing a crown and regal clothes, with a cross in his right hand and his own head in his left hand. He is fabled to have carried his severed head to his place of burial.
Contents
Life
Duklja was an early medieval Serbian principality whose borders coincided for the most part with those of present-day Montenegro. The state rose greatly in power after the disintegration of the early medieval Principality of Serbia that followed the death of its ruler, Prince Časlav, around 943. Though the extent of Časlav's Serbia is uncertain, it is presumed it included at least part of Bosnia. Serbia had subsequently come under Duklja's political dominance, along with the neighboring Serbian principalities of Travunia and Zachlumia (in present-day Herzegovina and south Dalmatia). The Byzantines often referred to Duklja as Serbia.
Around 1000, Vladimir, still a boy, succeeded his father Petrislav as the ruler of Duklja. Petrislav is regarded as the earliest ruler of Duklja whose existence can be confirmed by primary sources, which also indicate that he was in close relations with Byzantium.
The principality consisted of two provinces: Zenta in the south and Podgoria in the north. A local tradition has it that Vladimir's court was situated on the hillock called Kraljič, at the village of Koštanjica near Lake Skadar, in the Krajina region of southeastern Montenegro. Near Kraljič lie the ruins of the Prečista Krajinska Church (dedicated to Theotokos), which already existed in Vladimir's time. According to Daniele Farlati, an 18th-century ecclesiastical historian, the court and residence of Serbian rulers once stood in Krajina.
Vladimir's reign is recounted in Chapter 36 of the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, completed between 1299 and 1301; Chapters 34 and 35 deal with his father and uncles. These three chapters of the chronicle are most likely based on a lost biography of Vladimir written in Duklja sometime between 1075 and 1089. Both the chronicle and the 11th-century Byzantine historian John Skylitzes described Vladimir as a wise, pious, just, and peaceful ruler.
Vladimir's reign coincided with a protracted war between the Byzantine Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) and the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, Tsar Samuel (r. 980–1014). Basil II might have sought the support of other Balkan rulers for his fight against Samuel, and he intensified diplomatic contacts with Duklja for this purpose. A Serbian diplomatic mission, most likely sent from Duklja, arrived in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 992 and was recorded in a charter of the Great Lavra Monastery, written in 993.
Sainthood
Jovan Vladimir was buried in Prespa, in the same church in front of which he was martyred. His relics soon became famous as miraculously healing, attracting many people to his tomb. Shortly after his death he was recognized as a martyr and saint, being commemorated on 22 May, his feast day. At that time, saints were recognized without any formal rite of canonization. Vladimir was the first ruler of a Serbian state who was elevated to sainthood. The rulers from the Nemanjić dynasty, who reigned over the Serbian state which later capital was in Stari Ras, would almost all be canonized—starting with Nemanja, the saintly founder of the dynasty.
Several years after his burial, Kosara transported the remains to Duklja. She interred him in the Prečista Krajinska Church, near his court, in the region of Skadarska Krajina. The relics drew many devotees to the church, which became a center of pilgrimage. Kosara did not remarry; at her request, she was interred in Prečista Krajinska, at the feet of her husband. In around 1215—when Krajina was under the rule of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanjić—the relics were presumably removed from this church and transported to Dyrrhachium by the troops of Michael I, the despot of Epirus. At that time Despot Michael had briefly captured from Serbia the city of Skadar, which is only about 20 km (12 mi) east of the church. Jovan Vladimir was mentioned as the patron saint of Dyrrhachium in a Greek liturgical text.
In 1368 Dyrrhachium was taken from the Angevins by Karlo Thopia, an Albanian lord. In 1381 he rebuilt, in Byzantine style, a church ruined in an earthquake in the narrow valley of the stream Kusha, a tributary of the Shkumbin River—near the site of the town of Elbasan in central Albania (built in the 15th century). The church was dedicated to Saint Jovan Vladimir, as the inscription which Thopia placed above its south entrance declared in Greek, Latin, and Serbian. The saint's relics were kept in a reliquary, a wooden casket, which was enclosed in a shrine, 3 m (9.8 ft) in height, within the church.
Serbian scholar Stojan Novaković theorized that Vladimir was buried near Elbasan immediately after his death. Novaković conjectured that the earthquake which ruined the old church happened during Thopia's rule, and that Thopia reinstated the relics in the rebuilt church. If Vladimir was previously buried in Duklja, Novaković reasoned, he would not be absent, as he was, from Serbian sources written during the reign of the Nemanjić dynasty, who ruled over Duklja (later named Zeta) from 1186 to 1371. Novaković did not consider the idea that the relics might have been removed from Duklja to Dyrrhachium in around 1215. He commented on the chronicle's account that Kosara transported Vladimir's body "to a place known as Krajina, where his court was": While his court was possibly in the region of Krajina before his captivity, after he married Kosara it could have been near Elbasan, in the territory of Dyrrachium he received from Tsar Samuel. He was interred near the latter court, which was replaced in the chronicle with the former.
Cross of Vladimir
A cross, held by tradition to be the one that Jovan Vladimir received from Ivan Vladislav, and had in his hands when he was martyred, is a highly valued relic. It is under the care of the Andrović family from the village of Velji Mikulići near Bar and, according to the Androvićs, has been for centuries. The cross is made of yew wood plated with silver, with a brass ball attached to its lower arm, into which a stick is inserted when the cross is carried. The cross is 45 cm (18 in) high, 38 cm (15 in) wide, and 2.5 cm (1.0 in) thick.
According to Russian scholars Ivan Yastrebov and Pavel Rovinsky, the cross was originally kept in the Prečista Krajinska Church, in which Kosara had interred Vladimir. The peak of Islamization of the Krajina region was reached at the end of the 18th century. The church was torn down, though it is uncertain when and by whom, but the cross was preserved by the people of the region. They believed that it could protect against evil and ensure a rich harvest, and kept it as sacred, although they had converted to Islam. The cross was later taken from them by the neighboring clan of Mrkojevići. As they too converted to Islam, they entrusted the cross to the Andrović family—their Orthodox Christian neighbors. The Mrkojevići considered it more appropriate for the cross to be kept in a Christian home, rather than in a Muslim one.
The cross, followed by a religious procession, is carried each year on the Feast of Pentecost from Velji Mikulići to the summit of Mount Rumija. The procession is preceded by a midnight liturgy in the village's Church of St Nicholas. After the liturgy, the ascent begins up a steep path to the 1,593 m (5,226 ft) summit of Rumija. The cross, carried by a member of the Andrović family, leads the procession, followed by an Orthodox priest and the other participants. Catholics and Muslims of the region have traditionally participated in the procession. It is carefully observed that no one precedes the cross; to do so is considered a bad omen. The ascending devotees sing:
In the past, the standard-bearer of the Mrkojevići clan, a Muslim, walked next to the cross with a flag in his left and a knife in his right hand, ready to use it if anyone attempted to take the cross. The clan especially feared that the participants from Krajina might try to recover the sacred object. At the end of the 19th century, the number of Muslims in the procession dropped as their religious and political leaders disapproved of their participation in it. After World War II, Yugoslavia's socialist government discouraged public religious celebrations, and the procession was not held between 1959 and 1984.
Hagiography and iconography
The oldest preserved hagiography of Saint Jovan Vladimir is contained in Chapter 36 of the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja. This chronicle, written in Latin, was completed between 1299 and 1301 in the town of Bar, then part of the Serbian Kingdom. Its author was Rudger, the Catholic Archbishop of Bar, who was probably of Czech origin. He wrote Chapter 36 as a summary of an older hagiography of Vladimir, written in Duklja most likely sometime between 1075 and 1089. This is the period when Duklja's rulers from the Vojislavljević dynasty endeavored to obtain the royal insignia from the Pope, and to elevate the Bishopric of Bar to an archbishopric. They represented Prince Vladimir as the saintly founder of their dynasty; they were, according to the chronicle, descendants of his uncle Dragimir. The Vojislavljevićs succeeded in those endeavors, though Vladimir was not recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. Despite its hagiographic nature, Chapter 36 contains a lot of reliable historical data. Chapters 34 and 35, which deal with Vladimir's father and uncles, are probably based on the prologue of the 11th-century hagiography. Chapters 1–33 of the chronicle are based on oral traditions and its author's constructions, and are for the most part dismissed by historians.
The hagiography in the chronicle is the source for the "Poem of King Vladimir" composed in the 18th century by a Franciscan friar from Dalmatia, Andrija Kačić Miošić. The poem is part of Miošić's history of the South Slavs in prose and verse, written in the Serbo-Croatian vernacular of Dalmatia. This book was first printed in Venice in 1756 and was soon read beyond Dalmatia, including Serbia and Bulgaria (then under Ottoman rule, as was most of the Balkans). The "Poem of King Vladimir" is composed in a manner derived from the style of the South Slavic oral epics. It describes Vladimir's captivity in Bulgaria, the love between Kosara and him, Tsar Samuel's blessing of their marriage, and their wedding. It concludes with the newlyweds setting off for Vladimir's court, which Miošić places in the Herzegovinian city of Trebinje.
The Greek akolouthia on Saint Jovan Vladimir, containing his hagiography, prayers to him, and hymns to be chanted in church services on his feast day, was printed in Venice in 1690. The book was reprinted with small changes in 1774 and 1858. It was written from oral traditions by the deputy of the Orthodox Archbishop of Ohrid, Cosmas, who resided at the Monastery of St Jovan Vladimir, near Elbasan. Copies of the book were distributed to other Orthodox churches and individuals. The akolouthia was also published in 1741 in Moscopole, an Aromanian center in southeastern Albania, as part of a compilation dedicated to saints popular in that region. A shorter hagiography of the saint, based on his life contained in this akolouthia, was included in the Synaxarium composed by Nicodemus the Hagiorite, printed in Venice (1819) and Athens (1868). Cosmas's text was the basis for the Church Slavonic akolouthias on the saint, which appeared in Venice (1802) and Belgrade (1861). The latter was printed as part of the third edition of Srbljak, a compendium of akolouthias on Serb saints, published by the Serbian Orthodox Church. The saint's life in English, translated from Church Slavonic, appeared in the book Lives of the Serbian Saints, published in London in 1921 by the Anglican Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Legends
Several legends about Jovan Vladimir have been recorded in western Macedonia. One has it that, after he was beheaded, he brought his head to the Monastery of St John of Bigor. On a hill above the village of Pesočani in the Municipality of Debarca, there is a locality called Vladimirovo, where some ruins can be seen. The locals claim that it is where Vladimir was born and later brought his severed head. The Church of St Athanasius near Pesočani, now ruined, is reputed to have been built by Vladimir. People from the region gathered there each year on the eve of his feast day. They lit candles on the remains of the church's walls and prayed to the saint. Tradition has it that the Monastery of St Naum had a bell tower named after the saint, in the foundation of which a portion of his relics was placed.
In the western fringe of Macedonia, which is now part of Albania, Jovan Vladimir was remembered as a saintly ruler, cut down by his father-in-law, an emperor, who believed the slanderous accusation that he was a womanizer. The enraged emperor, accompanied by soldiers, found Vladimir on a mountain pass named Qafë Thanë (also known as Derven), on the road between the Macedonian town of Struga and Elbasan. He struck his son-in-law with a sword, but could not cut him. Only when Vladimir gave him his own sword was the emperor able to cut off his head. Vladimir took his severed head and went towards the site of his future church. There stood an oak, under which he fell after the tree bowed down before him. The saint was interred in the church which was subsequently built at that place and dedicated to him.
According to a legend recorded in the Greek hagiography, Jovan Vladimir built the church near Elbasan. Its location, deep in a dense forest, was chosen by God, and an eagle with a shining cross on its head showed it to Vladimir. After the saint was decapitated, he brought his head to the church, and was buried inside. A group of Franks once stole the casket with his miraculous relics. The casket turned out to be extremely heavy, breaking the backs of the hinnies on which the Franks carried it. They eventually placed it in the Shkumbin River to take it to sea, but the river flooded, and the casket—radiating light—went back upstream towards the church. The local inhabitants took it out of the water and returned it to the church in a festive procession.
A group of thieves stole, on a summer day, horses that belonged to the Monastery of St Jovan Vladimir. When they came to the nearby stream of Kusha to take the horses across, it appeared to them like an enormous river. They moved away from it in fear, but when they looked back from a distance, the stream appeared small. As they approached it again, the Kusha again became huge and impassable. After several such attempts to cross the stream, the thieves realized that this was a miracle of the saint, so they released the monastery's horses and ran away in horror.