The Holy King. The Cult of St Stefan of Dečani

The Holy King. The Cult of St Stefan of Dečani by Smilja Marjanović-Dušanić, Professor at the Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, and a member of one of the Institute’s projects, is devoted to one of the most complex concepts of medieval west-European and Byzantine royal ideology, that of the holy king. Part One looks at the origin and evolution of the institution of royal sanctity in medieval Europe and offers an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon in medieval Serbia. Part Two is devoted to a particular cult—the cult of St Stefan of Dečani (king of Serbia 1321–31). It has been chosen for the key study of royal sanctity with the Serbs not only because Stefan of Dečani has been the second most favourite saint to Sts Sava and Simeon in official and popular piety, but also because his cult lends itself to a long-term approach. St Stefan’s cult has passed through all stages of development—from a dynastic saint, a new martyr and a historical hero to that of a national hero of the restored Serbian state in the nineteenth century—to become the most complete holy king cult in Serbian history. The study addresses the complex questions of shared public memory and of the birth of historical memory and its association with the phenomenon of holy places. Covering a long span of time from medieval times to the present, it interrogates the relationship between history and memory. The book is published jointly by the Institute for Balkan Studies and Clio