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Stefan Trajkovi Filipovi

SAINT VLADIMIR OF ZETA

BETWEEN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND HAGIOGRAPHY

MA Thesis in Medieval Studies

Central European University

Budapest

May 2012

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SAINT VLADIMIR OF ZETA

BETWEEN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND HAGIOGRAPHY

by

Stefan Trajkovi Filipovi

(Serbia)

Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies,

Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements

of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies.

Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU.

____________________________________________

Chair, Examination Committee

____________________________________________

Thesis Supervisor

____________________________________________

Examiner

____________________________________________

Examiner

Budapest

May 2012

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SAINT VLADIMIR OF ZETA

BETWEEN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND HAGIOGRAPHY

by

Stefan Trajkovi Filipovi

(Serbia)

Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies,

Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements

of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies.

Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU.

____________________________________________

External Reader

Budapest May 2012

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SAINT VLADIMIR OF ZETA

BETWEEN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND HAGIOGRAPHY

by

Stefan Trajkovi Filipovi

(Serbia)

Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies,

Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements

of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies.

Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU.

________________________

Supervisor

____________________________________________

External Supervisor

Budapest May 2012

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I, the undersigned, Stefan Trajkovi Filipovi, candidate for the MA degree in

Medieval Studies, declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work,

based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes

and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the

work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any persons or institutions

copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any

other institution of higher education for an academic degree.

Budapest, 16 May 2012

__________________________

Signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the Department of Medieval Studies for the time and energy

invested in me during this academic year. I would like to give special thanks to my

supervisor Marianne Saghy for support and useful advice in the process of writing this

thesis. Her comments provided me with the opportunity to have a better understanding

of my topic. I am also grateful for the motivation and support I have received from my

colleagues and friends who always had enough patience to listen to me and will to offer

me new ideas and insightful questions.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER I: THE ANNALS OF A PRIEST OF DIOCLEA AND ITS PROBLEMS

.......................................................................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER II: HOLY KINGS AND MARTYRED RULERS IN EARLY

MEDIEVAL EUROPE ................................................................................................... 8

CHAPTER III: PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON THE CHAPTER XXXVI OF THE

ANNALS OF A PRIEST OF DIOCLEA ...................................................................... 17

CHAPTER IV: THE HAGIOGRAPHIC ASPECTS OF THE CHAPTER XXXVI:

A LIFE OF SAINT VLADIMIR? ............................................................................... 27

CHAPTER V: CHAPTER XXXVI AND THE ANNALS OF A PRIEST OF

DIOCLEA ....................................................................................................................... 36

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 48

APPENDIX .................................................................................................................... 55

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 67

Primary Sources ........................................................................................................ 67

Secondary Sources .................................................................................................... 67

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INTRODUCTION

Come quickly my soldiers, come quickly and save me for Vladimir

wishes to kill me! Having said that he rose from his throne and tried to

escape. Suddenly he was struck by an Angel, fell to the ground and died

both in the body and the soul And so it happened that the vicious

murderer, who, at lunch, had ordered blessed Vladimir to be beheaded

and thus made him a martyr, was killed while dinning. He became

Satans angel.1

This is how The Annals of a Priest of Dioclea describes the death of John Vladislav,

Bulgarian Tsar and the murderer of Vladimir of Zeta.2 In Serbian hagiography and

historiography Vladimir is considered the first Serbian holy king, preceding the holy

kings of the Nemanjid dynasty in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. What is more,

Vladimir of Zeta is also seen as the first Serbian martyr ruler, which differentiates

him from the later tradition of Nemanjid holy rulers.3

Chapter XXXVI of The Annals of a Priest of Dioclea offers a full account of the

life and death of Vladimir. This thesis does not attempt to evaluate the credibility of the

information in Chapter XXXVI of The Annals; it will not deal with the reconstruction

of the historical reality of the eleventh century history and the reign of Vladimir of Zeta.

The focus will be on the text of the Chapter itself, its structure, possible literary

contexts, and construction. I will address the results of previous research dealing with

the analysis of the text and discuss them, focusing on their implications and possible

alternatives. However, before dealing with the problems and questions that Chapter

XXXVI carries with it there are two topics that should be discussed. The first topic

1 Currite mei milites, currite et defendite me quia Vladimirus occidere me vult! Et haec dicens surrexit

de solio suo ut fugeret. Statimque parcussus ab angelo corruit in terram et mortuus est corpore et

anima Sicque factum est ut nequissimus homicida, qui sedens ad prandium beatum Vladimirum

decollari iusserat et martyrem fecerat, ipse hora cenae percuteretur ut angelus Satanae efficeretur.

[Tibor ivkovi] , Gesta Regum Sclavorum I (Belgrade: Institute of History Ostrog

Monastery, 2009): 138-139. 2 Zeta (Dioclea) was a small medieval Serbian principality on the Adriatic coast (in modern Montenegro).

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concerns The Annals of a Priest of Dioclea, a source where the story about Vladimir is

found. It is a problematic source burdened with many different interpretations from

both academic and non-academic circles. The second concerns the main theme of the

story about Vladimir the death of a holy ruler as a martyr. Therefore, it would be

useful to make a survey of development of the literature dealing with martyred rulers in

the early medieval Christian world. The literary context of martyred rulers deserves

more attention because it was of special importance for the analysis of the Chapter

XXXVI of The Annals of a Priest of Dioclea.

3 The next martyr ruler in medieval Serbian literature was Prince Lazar, who died fighting the Turks at

the battle of Kosovo in 1389. See Smilja Marjanovi-Duani, Patterns of Royal Sanctity in the Royal

Ideology of Medieval Serbia. Continuity and Change, Balcanica 37 (2006): 69-79.

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CHAPTER I

THE ANNALS OF A PRIEST OF DIOCLEA AND ITS PROBLEMS

Much has been written about The Annals of a Priest of Dioclea. It is a controversial text

burdened with never-ending historiographical debates. In this chapter I focus on the points

from previous research that dealt with issues that will be relevant for my thesis, not trying to