Lives of the Serbian Saints

tr. Yanich and Hankey, 1921

2. The Life of Saint Simeon, Giver of the Oil

Our godly father Simeon was the son of a Serbian prince, Gradina, who ruled in the country of Rascia. He was born in Diocletia, near to the Adriatic Sea, baptized in Rascia, which is to-day Novi-Bazar, in the church of the Princes of the Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, and received the name of Stephen. The sacrament was given to him by Leontius, the bishop of Rascia in that day. When his youth was passed and he had come to man’s estate, he ruled the country of his father with wisdom and justice. From the first he showed his love for the holy Church, and in all he had to do he acted justly in obedience to the command of the Gospels. In his desire to show how deep was his affection for the Church, and most of all for that of his baptism, he built the church to the honour and glory of the All Holy Mother of God in the town Toplitsa on the river Kosanitsa, and another to the honour and memory of St. Nicholas on the river Banya.

His own brothers had no good-will towards him, for they envied his good fame. So they took him and put him in prison. From thence our Lord delivered him, by the hand of His great martyr St. George, and He gave him victory wholly over his enemies, so that he drove them from the fatherland. But those exiles did not forgive him, and raised their hands against their brother yet again, receiving soldiers from the Greek Emperor, so that they had many mercenaries. But again the Lord was against them, and not only were they crushed and destroyed, but one of the brothers was drowned in the river Tara near Zvechany, where the battle was. This victory, given to him by the Lord, Stephen used very wisely. He increased the borders of his kingdom and set up the first Serbian state, which now had only one autocrat and was independent of the Greek Emperor, nor was it any longer as in the time before, when every Zhupan ruled his own small country by himself. Now this was not pleasing to the Emperor Andronicus, and he came with his armies to destroy the young Serbian state. Yet was he forced to go back again, for he was overcome and lost twenty of his fortresses. Thereby these provinces came within the kingdom of Serbia at this time—Serbia, Old Serbia, Sirmie and a part of Slavonia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, a part of Albania and Macedonia.

Then there was peace in all the countries of Serbia. And it came into the mind of Stephen Nemanya, first autocrat of Serbia, to build monuments in his state to the glory of God, Who is almighty and rules over all things, and that he might strengthen the Serbian people in the orthodox faith and provide things useful for the souls of his subjects. Therefore he built a church in the honour and memory of the great martyr George, called by the people George Stubovy,² and another he built to the Holy Archangel Michael in Skoplje, and a third to St. Pantelemon in Nish, and a fourth to the All Holy Mother of God, which was called Studenitza.

This his devotion to the Holy Orthodox Church gave the saint great zeal to destroy utterly all heresies which arose among the people through the work of false teachers.³ And when he was stricken in years so that he could no longer bear the weight of rule, and when he took thought for the salvation of his soul, he decided in his heart to lay aside this burden and to place it upon his first-born son Stephen. Which thing he did on a day set apart before all whom he assembled to him. Having made an end of this, the son being now king in the room of his father, straightway, on the next day, the godly king, with his wife and children, went to Studenitza, where he became the monk Simeon.⁴ In that monastery he remained fasting and following the rules of prayer. After the space of two years he went and gave rich gifts to his son Sava on the Sveta Gora (Holy Mountain Athos), giving praise to the Lord because he saw the youngest of the sons of his heart. First he stayed in the monastery Vatoped, to which he gave of the gifts he had brought, and after that he visited other churches and gave them costly presents. Then did he make request to those who had the power to grant it, and he was allowed to build again the monastery Khilindar. And then he built the beautiful church in memory of the Coming of the All Holy Mother of God to the Temple and gave this holy house to the children of his fatherland, so that all who came thence might find a refuge there. When he had made an end of the foundation of the church, he began to build the walls and the cells and a refectory also. And all things being done, he sent a letter to his son, the autocrat Stephen, telling him, among other messages: “My son, as I gave to you the Lavra⁵ of Studenitza, so now I give to you the Lavra of Khilindar, that you may keep it ever under your care, both you and your sons after you.” And besides all this he prayed for and received letters from the Greek Emperor, which established the rights over this new monastery for the Serbian people from generation to generation.

Now after he had spent some long while in following the good life of the spirit and the rule of prayer, the holy Simeon felt in his heart that the hour of his death drew near, and he spoke to his son Sava in secret: “My child, the hour when we must part is at hand, and it may be the will of the Lord to be by me. You must serve me now, for I am taking thought for the salvation of my soul.” When he heard this, the holy Sava shed tears and fell upon his neck, answering him: “The will of the Lord be with thee, my father, and as I have been upheld unto this day through thy prayers, be thou still my defence with thy good prayers if it be indeed that thou art going to the Christ.” Then the father embraced his son, and blessed him and kissed him and made him promise that he would bring his body again to Studenitza.

When it was known on the Holy Mountain that the hour of the far voyage of the holy monk Simeon was come, there came to him day by day the brothers from all the monasteries to bid him farewell. And he, calling upon each by his name, commended himself to their prayers. St. Sava stayed close to him the while to read the Psalms. In good time the saint received the Holy Sacrament, while he was still clear in mind and soul, and on the next day, since his sickness increased more and more, Sava his son bore him into the church. And there he lay so ill that he could no more speak, but only looking upon the purity of the picture of Jesus Christ, he said slowly as he died, “Let everything which hath breath praise the Lord.” With this song he ended his life upon earth, his soul ascending to the Lord on the thirteenth day of February, twelve hundred years after Christ. St. Sava, with many others of the brethren, buried his body in a marble sarcophagus in the church, when all the rites had been duly fulfilled.

It came to pass after his death that the holy Simeon appeared to his son and made known to him the blessed state of his life by Jesus the Saviour. Now, although Sava rejoiced exceedingly at his coming, he wished that a yet greater glory might come though his father, wherefore he prayed by day and by night to God that He would glorify His great Name through His servant Sava in whatsoever way He would. And when, in summer time, they made memorial of his father Simeon at the midnight office, while they sang Te Deum, the church was suddenly filled with a very sweet smell arising from the oil which came forth from the body of St. Simeon. Then all those who were in the church with St. Sava, smelling that fragrance and being led by the sound of the boiling oil to the place where the body lay, cried with glad voices, “Have mercy upon us, O Lord,” and prostrating themselves, kissed the tomb and anointed themselves with the oil. And St. Sava gave great thanks to God, and took one small bottle of the oil and sent it to his brother, the autocrat Stephen. And he, greatly desiring to have such a holy thing in his own land, prayed his brother, the holy Sava, to bring back the body of their father. Which thing he did, in obedience to the will of their dead father. And on the night of the thirteenth day of February, while Sava was celebrating the Holy Liturgy with the bishops in the church of Studenitza, before the autocrat himself and all the nobles, clergy and people, once again the oil rose suddenly from the tomb and from the pictures of St. Simeon painted on the walls of the church. Then all who were in the church anointed themselves with the oil, great and small they anointed themselves, but especially those who were sick. The body which did this great wonder lay at Studenitza till St. Sava came back again as Serbian Archbishop. And when he built the monastery of Zicha and there set up his Apostolic see, he moved the relics into the Church of the Ascension in that monastery. Of all that befell them in the later days of the weakness of the Serbian state and the civil wars and the coming of the Turks, the tradition of the people has many things to tell, but they agree not one with the other, nor are they certainly true. There is, indeed, one story alone which may be believed, to wit, that the relics of holy Simeon were again moved to Studenitza in those days when the Turks were invading the country and that they were placed in the church of Holy Nicholas. The rising of the holy oil came then almost to an end, for it was the will of the Lord, to whom be all honour and glory from generation to generation! Amen.

Notes

Stephen Nemanya, who took the name of Simeon when he became a monk, was the founder of the Nemanya dynasty, which ruled Serbia 1169–1372. He himself was Grand Zhupan 1169–1196, in which year he abdicated in favour of his second son Stephen.
The Pillar.
Specially the heretics Bogumile. As they were like the Quakers and followers of Tolstoi in their attitude towards war, they were very dangerous to the state in those days. When the Turks took Bosnia in 1463 they became Musulmans.
In the Orthodox Church there is only one order of monks, those who follow the rule laid down by St. Basil the Great of Cappadocia. There are, in this rule, two degrees: the lesser vow and the great vow. The latter is very severe, and is called the “angel way of life.” They hardly ever speak.
A Lavra is a monastery which has been built by a king.