Kir Stefan the Serb

Kir Stefan the Serb (Serbian Стефан Србин / Stefan Srbin; * about 1360; † around 1430) was a Serbian Orthodox monk. As a lawyer, he composed Byzantine hymns in Church Slavonic - altserbischer and Greek.

As to the end of the 14th century has survived not only Serbian piece of music, his works include the oldest in the Serbian music history. There is insufficient information to his person. Andrija Jakovljević took the view that he may lived from 1360 to 1430 in the Mount Athos, in Hilandar monastery. Other historians believe that he lived in the middle of the 15th century in Smederevo and represented with the aforementioned found in manuscripts of that time Stefan Domestik, a son of the Serbian despots Đurađ, one and the same person.

His most important works include the song Ninja sili nebesnije s nami nevidimo služet ( Serbian Cyrillic Ниња сили небесније с нами невидимо служет ). The only manuscript of this song from the 15th century destroyed during the air attack on Belgrade by the German Luftwaffe in 1941.

The singer Pavle Aksentijević presents several works by Stefan in different albums.

Stefan the Serb was in 1980 at the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 18, London 1980, page 93 held as a historical musicians.