The Life of the Holy and Right-Believing Stefan the Tall, Despot of Serbia

To the holy prophet and seer of God Moses, God said, when He appeared to him on Sinai, that He would draw near to him, because Moses too had drawn near to God by pleasing Him. And God said further that thereafter He would draw near to all those who, like Moses, would be His faithful servants and those well-pleasing to Him. For to everyone, God said to Moses, who draws near to Me and rises up to Me in the pure ark of his body, kept inviolate from the drowning waters of unbelief and impurity, I too shall draw near and come out to meet him, pouring upon him pure water from My Spirit, and I shall raise him up to the lofty and imperishable realities of heaven. Thus does his biographer, Constantine the Philosopher, begin the description of the life and labors of this glorious and pious Serbian lord, Despot Stefan. Continuing then with the comparison of the holy Despot Stefan with Moses the seer of God, he says that that holy Seer of God was the model and pattern for this holy Lover of God, that is, for the righteous Despot Stefan, for the path of life and the struggle of the two of them was from the very beginning alike and almost one and the same. Both Moses and Stefan, as God-striving guiding angels, for some forty years led their God-chosen people unto salvation through the land of Egyptian and Turkish bondage and through the wilderness of afflictions and dangers toward the promised land, that is, toward the Kingdom of Heaven. Through both of them alike God was glorified by His wondrous and glorious works against the adversaries, and God became wondrous in the memory of His Saints. For as once through the God-chosen Moses, so now through this God-chosen ruler of the Christ-named Serbian people God showed His power among His people, not allowing the surrounding nations and tribes to destroy this faithful inheritance of Christ. For now too, in the time of the Despot, God left and preserved for Himself those "who have not bowed the knee to Baal" (3 Kings 19:18; Rom. 11:4) and did not falter because of the weakness of human nature, but out of weakness were made strong and were mighty in battles, both bodily and spiritual, for they believed in Him who breaks battles with a high and mighty arm. And this pious and holy Despot Stefan was also like Moses in that he chose rather to suffer with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. For he was crucified together with his suffering Christ-named flock, and, suffering truly for the sake of piety and True Worship (= Orthodoxy) no less than many in antiquity, he remained firm in the faith and unshaken, and was valiant in the Lord, from Whom he therefore received the crown of righteousness. His biographer Constantine also compares the holy Despot Stefan with Joshua the son of Nun, for he was like him in faith and courage, and in worthiness to apportion the land and to raise up a new tabernacle for the New Israel, as well as in delivering his people at various times from the surrounding enemies by the wisdom and power given him by God. The wise