Jefimija

Jefimija ( her name in religion ) (* 1349, † 1405), originally despot Jelena, was a Serbian poet and nun. In the Serbian historiography it is considered the first poet of Serbia.

Life

Christened as Jelena, Jefimija was the daughter of the Caesars Voichna ( serb. kecap Војихне ) under Stefan Dušan. She married the brother of the king Vukašin and despots of Serres Jovan Uglješa. Their son Uglješa died at the age of four years. After her husband was killed in the Battle of Maritsa, they initially remained in Serres and was living then in Kruševac at the court of Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović.

After the defeat of the Serbs against the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo Polje, she pulled together with the Princess Milica in the monastery Zupanja back later to Ljubostinja. Towards the end of her life she was abbess ( megalos schimos ) and took the name Jevpraksija ( Eupraxia ).

Jefimija was also involved in diplomatic affairs. 1398 is Princess Milica Hrebeljanović to gain at Bayezid I. to intercede for Stefan Lazarević, who had fallen out of favor because of refusal to participate in the campaign in Bosnia in 1398. On this occasion, Bayezid gives permission to transfer the bones of the Saint Petka Paraskeva under the presence of Grigory Camblak of Vidin to Serbia. Until 1521, they remain in the church of Sv. Petka in Belgrade and are now in the Mitropol church in a Romanian Iaşi.

Literary works

Among her works, the praise of Prince Lazar is particularly noteworthy. It is a prayer in the form of a poem that asks the Holy Martyr Lazar for protection for the sons of the princes at the battle of Angora. The praise is their earliest preserved poem.

Narrated the text is the gold embroidery on a dead cloth for the head of Saint Lazar Hrebeljanović, which was created in 1402 in Ljubostinja monastery. Today the cloth is in the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade.