Jovan Vladimir (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Владимир),[1] in English texts often John Vladimir, (died May 22, 1016 in Prespa, Macedonia) was the ruler of Duklja between the years ca. 990 and 1016, during the protracted war between Byzantium and the First Bulgarian Empire. He tried to protect Duklja from the expansionist TsarSamuil of Bulgaria by making alliance with Byzantium; Samuil, however, conquered Duklja in 997 and took Jovan Vladimir prisoner. Samuil’s daughter Theodora Kosara fell in love with the captive, and begged her father for his hand. He obliged, returning Duklja to his new son-in-law, and giving him the territory of Dyrrachium besides. Vladimir was acknowledged as a godly, just, and compassionate ruler. He ruled in peace, evading involvement in the major conflict that culminated with Samuil’s defeat by the Byzantines in 1014, shortly after which the Tsar died. Jovan Vladimir finally fell victim in 1016 to a plot by Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler of the First Bulgarian empire; he was beheaded in front of a church in Prespa. Jovan Vladimir was buried in Prespa, and shortly after his death he was recognized as a martyr and saint, being celebrated on May 22; he is chronologically the first Serbian saint. Two or three years after the burial he was reburied in Duklja, but in ca. 1215 his relics were transferred to Dyrrachium, where they remained until 1381. They have been kept afterwards at the Monastery of St. Jovan Vladimir near Elbasan until 1995, and since then in the Orthodoxcathedral of Tirana. To the present day, the relics of Saint Jovan Vladimir attract many believers, especially on his feast day. Another relic connected with the saint is the cross that he held in his hands when he was beheaded. For centuries, it has been under the care of the Andrović family of the Serb clanMrkojevići. It is shown to believers only once a year, on the Feast of Pentecost. Saint Jovan Vladimir is the patron saint of the town Bar in southern Montenegro. He is classically depicted on icons as a monarch wearing a crown and regal clothes, with a cross in his right hand, and his own head in the left hand.
Until about thirty years prior to Jovan Vladimir’s reign, Duklja was a part of the first unified Serbian state, called Serblia (Σερβλια) in Constantine VII’s book De Administrando Imperio.[2] The state disintegrated after the death of its ruler Prince Časlav around the year 960,[2] which precipitated the rise of other Serbian principalities, most notably that of Duklja.[3] Around 990, Vladimir, still a youth, succeeded his father Petrislav as the ruler of Duklja, which comprised approximately the present-day Montenegro, north-eastern Herzegovina, and Koplik in Albania. It consisted of two provinces: Zenta in the south, and Podgoria in the north. His court was situated at the locality called today Kraljič, in the Krajina region of the Municipality of Bar, southern Montenegro.[4][5] Jovan Vladimir appears during the protracted war between Byzantium and Tsar Samuil – the heir to the First Bulgarian Empire. In a situation reminiscent of earlier Serbian rulers, he was pressed by Bulgarian expansion, while being courted by the Byzantine Emperor.[3]Basil II sought the support of other Balkan rulers for his fight against the mighty Samuil, and with this intention he contacted Jovan Vladimir. The Serbian diplomatic mission whose arrival in Constantinople in the year 992 is mentioned in a charter of the Great Lavra Monastery written in 993, was most likely a mission sent by Jovan Vladimir, who was likewise interested in thwarting Samuil.[6] The alliance with Byzantium, however, did not help the Prince. In 997 Samuil attacked Duklja, and after several weeks of fighting, Vladimir having seen that the Tsar’s huge force cannot be resisted, retreated with his army and many of his people onto the hill Kosorog (Obliquus).[7] According to the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, Vladimir performed a miracle there: the hill was infested with venomous snakes, but when he offered up a prayer to the Lord, their bite became harmless.[5] Samuil left a part of his army to lay siege to the hill, and carried on conquering other places.[8] After a while, Vladimir surrendered to deliver his people from famine and the sword, and was sent to a prison in Prespa.[5][8] While he languished in the prison praying day and night, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and foretold that he would shortly be freed, but that he would die a martyr’s death.[5] His fate in captivity is the subject of one of the most romantic tales of early Serbian literature – the story of Vladimir and Theodora Kosara, Samuil’s daughter.[3] An oral tradition of the story was recorded in the 12th century in the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja; this is the Chronicle’s description of how Vladimir and Kosara met:[5]
“It came to pass that Samuel’s daughter, Cossara, was animated and inspired by a beatific soul. She approached her father and begged that she might go down with her maids and wash the head and feet of the chained captives. Her father granted her wish, so she descended and carried out her good work. Noticing Vladimir among the prisoners, she was struck by his handsome appearance, his humility, gentleness and modesty, and the fact that he was full of wisdom and knowledge of the Lord. She stopped to talk to him, and to her his speech seemed sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.”
So Kosara fell in love with the handsome captive, and begged her father for his hand. Samuil not only allowed the marriage, but he also returned Duklja to his new son-in-law, and besides gave him the whole territory of Dyrrachium, to rule them as his vassal. Samuil wanted to bind his new subjects to himself in a more cordial way, not only with the sheer force. He likewise sent to Vladimir’s paternal uncle Dragimir, the ruler of Travunia, to come down from a mountain where he retreated with his people before Samuil’s army, and to resume ruling his land.[5][8] Thereafter, as recorded in the Chronicle, “Vladimir lived with his wife Cossara in all sanctity and chastity, worshipping God and serving him night and day, and he ruled the people entrusted to him in a Godfearing and just manner.”[5] During that time, Church Slavonic literacy and other ecclesiastic influences of the Ohrid patriarchate spread through his realm. He apparently ruled in peace, evading involvement in the major conflict, which culminated with Samuil’s disastrous defeat by the Byzantines in 1014, shortly after which the Tsar died of heart attack.[3][9] Tsar Samuil was succeeded by his son Gavril Radomir, but his reign was short: his cousin Ivan Vladislav killed him in 1015, and ruled in his stead.[9] Vladislav held that he would make his position stronger if he exterminated the whole family of Samuil, for which reason he plotted the murder of Jovan Vladimir.[8] The new Tsar thus sent messengers to him to demand his attendance in Prespa, but Vladimir did not want to go out his land; not even after many subsequent Vladislav’s promises and pledges that he meant no harm to him. Finally, Vladimir promised that he would go to Prespa if Vladislav sent him a wooden cross in the hands of religious men, who would confirm that the Tsar had made the pledge on that cross. Two bishops and a hermit indeed came to Vladimir, and gave him the oath and cross sent by Vladislav. Vladimir kissed the cross, collected a few followers, and set off to Prespa. As soon as he arrived there, he went into a church for a prayer. When he came out of the church, he was struck down by Vladislav’s soldiers and beheaded, all the time holding the cross in his hands; it was May 22, 1016.[5][10] Vladimir was succeeded by his uncle Dragimir, who thus ruled both Duklja and Travunia.[11] According to the Chronicle, however, Dragimir was slain during his attempt to establish himself as Duklja’s ruler.[5] Ivan Vladislav was killed in less than two years after Jovan Vladimir’s assassination: he was stabbed in the back with spears while he besieged Dyrrachium, in February 1018.[12] The Chronicle, though, states that Vladimir appeared before him as an armed soldier, and struck him dead.[5] In any way, the First Bulgarian Empire was terminated the same year, and fully incorporated into the Byzantine Empire.[9] Duklja is not mentioned for the next twenty or so years, presumably remaining a vassal principality of Byzantium.[3]
Jovan Vladimir was buried in Prespa, in the same church in front of which he was martyred, and his relics very soon became famous as miraculously healing, attracting many people to his tomb.[5] Shortly after his death, he was recognized as a martyr and saint,[16] being commemorated on May 22. Chronologically, Saint Jovan Vladimir is the first Serbian saint.[17] This canonizing of the deceased ruler was to set a precedent, later to be expanded in the appearance of the Holy Nemanjić dynasty in Raška.[3] Two or three years after Jovan Vladimir’s burial, Kosara transported his remains to Duklja, and interred him near his court in Krajina, in the church of the Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos. The relics drew many devotees to the church, making it a center of pilgrimage. Kosara did not marry again; by her will, she was interred in the same church, at the feet of her husband.[12] In ca. 1215, Krajina was taken from Serbia by Michael I, the Despot of Epirus. During his brief reign over this territory, Michael I ordered that the relics be transported to Dyrrachium.[18] According to one of the hagiographies of Saint Jovan Vladimir, he was then recognized as the patron saint of this city.[12] Dyrrachium was taken in 1368 by an Albanian ruler Karlo Thopia, who in 1381 rebuilt in Byzantine style a ruined monastery near Elbasan, and had the relics transferred into the monastery’s church. He made an inscription above the church’s door, describing these pious deeds of his in Greek, Serbian and Latin. The rebuilt monastery was accordingly dedicated to Saint Jovan Vladimir, Shën Jon Vlladimirit in Albanian, and it soon developed into a prominent destination of pilgrimage. In the 18th century, it became the see of the Orthodox archdiocese of Dyrrachium. Gregory, the Archbishop of Dyrrachium (1768-1772), wrote in it the Elbasan Gospel Manuscript, the oldest work of Albanian Orthodox literature.[18] To the present day, a great number of believers assemble at the monastery every year on June 4 to celebrate the Feast of Saint Jovan Vladimir.[19] His relics have been kept in the Orthodox cathedral of Tirana since 1995, being brought back to the monastery only for his feast days.[20] The cult of Saint Jovan Vladimir has been cherished in Macedonia for centuries; his icons can be found in many Macedonian churches.[12] A local tradition has it that the Church of St. Athanasius near the village Pesočani in the Municipality of Debarca, was founded by Jovan Vladimir. The church is now half-ruined, but people from the region gather there every year on June 3, the eve of the Feast of Saint Jovan Vladimir. They light candles on the remains of the church’s walls, and pray to the saint. It is believed that a stream flowing nearby swells and fills with fish that day after the sunset, and many of the devotees having prayed go to the stream and catch fish.[21] The wooden cross which by tradition is the one that Jovan Vladimir held in his hands when he was murdered by Ivan Vladislav’s men, is a highly valued relic. For centuries, it has been under the care of the Andrović family of the Serb clanMrkojevići. At the end of the 16th century it was plated with silver; with the plating, it is 45 cm high, 38 cm wide, and 2.5 cm thick. The cross, followed by a religious procession, is carried every year on the Feast of Pentecost from the village Velji Mikulići in the Municipality of Bar to the summit of Mount Rumija. Traditionally, many Catholics and Muslims of the region also participate in the procession. The event is preceded by and followed with various religious and folk festivities. A tradition has it that at the Mount Rumija’s summit a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity stood, built by Jovan Vladimir, and razed by Ottomans.[22] A church building stands there again since 2005, erected and consecrated by the Serbian Orthodox Church.[23][24] Saint Jovan Vladimir is the patron saint of the town Bar, and a festive religious procession passes on his feast day through the streets of Bar with church banners and icons, celebrating the saint. The procession starts out in front of the parish home, and when it arrives at the remains of the 6th century Church of the Most Holy Theotokos, it pauses and a short sermon is delivered. Completing its established route, the procession returns to the parish home.[25]
Iconography and hagiography
The classical iconography of Saint Jovan Vladimir depicts him as a monarch wearing a crown and regal clothes, with a cross in his right hand, and his own severed head in the left hand. This iconography developed in Macedonia, where he is shown on icons and frescos usually together with Saints Clement and Naum. Saint Jovan Vladimir is represented on frescos in three monasteries of Mount Athos: Hilandar, Zograf, and Philotheou; three Bulgarian monasteries: Rila, Troyan, and Glozhene; and in the Saint Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula.[22] In 1742, Hristofor Zhefarovich created in Vienna a copperplate depicting Saint Jovan Vladimir’s miracles. Printed impressions of the copperplate were disseminated to a great number of homes of Orthodox Christians throughout the Balkans. The same author included Saint Jovan Vladimir among the rulers and saints whom he illustrated in his Stemmatographia.[22] The oldest hagiography of Saint Jovan Vladimir is the chapter XXXVI of Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, written in Latin in the 12th century. Although Vladimir was only a prince, the Chronicle, recording an oral tradition of the people of Duklja, calls him a king. His title King of Serbia resulted from the fact that, in Vladimir’s time, Duklja was the most notable Serbian principality.[3][5] His hagiographies in Church Slavonic and Greek were printed in Venice in 1690; the Greek one was written in the Elbasan monastery. They have many panegyrical and glorifying features, and in the Church Slavonic hagiography, Jovan Vladimir is called the Tsar of Illyria and Dalmatia. The main purpose of these two hagiographies was to reinforce Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire to preserve their faith, and to resist the Ottoman occupation.[22]
Notes
^Jovan Vladimir is pronounced[ˈjovan ˈvladimiːr]. The name in Greek: Ιωάννης Βλαδίμηρος (Iōannīs Vladimīros), in Bulgarian: Йоан Владимир (Yoan Vladimir) or Иван Владимир (Ivan Vladimir), in Albanian: Gjon Vlladimiri or Jon Vlladimiri.
^ ab Ćorović (chapter “Срби између Византије, Хрватске и Бугарске”)
^ abcdefgJovan Vladimir. Serbian medieval history. Serbian Unity Congress. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
^ On the same day when the church was consecrated, July 31, 2005, a Frenchman was baptized in it embracing Orthodox Christianity. He chose that his christened name be Jean-Vladimir.
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