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

obtained an apple from a certain Turk, and “half of it he gave to his nephew, and half he took himself. And having prayed much, they tasted of the apple in place of Holy Communion. For there was then no one who could commune them, and for this reason they tasted the apple in place of the Blood and Body of the Lord.” The news of such a death of his brother Vuk struck his brother the holy Despot most grievously, and from that painful news he at once fell gravely ill. Learning of this illness of the Despot, the people of Dubrovnik sent him their physician. The wicked Musa, meanwhile, clashed again with Süleyman, but having again suffered defeat, he fled to the north and came to Despot Stefan, seeking protection from him. Although this murderer of his brother was hateful to him, the Despot, because of the knightly word he had given him, would not kill him, but neither would he help him any longer, and he sent him away empty-handed. Yet, foreseeing that Musa would become sultan, the Despot took from him his word and promise that he would not attack the Serbian land. Musa then went again to the east, to the city of Adrianople, and finding there, at a fitting moment, his brother Süleyman at a nightly carousal and drinking bout, he seized him unawares and put him to death. And so he became the Turkish sultan. But immediately thereafter he trampled the word given to the Despot, and striking at the Serbian land, he seized the regions around Pirot. When the Despot learned of this, he at once sent his envoy Aidin to Musa, to remind Musa of his promise. But when the Despot’s man saw the cunning and bestial intentions of Musa, he fled from him secretly, and coming “to the grove where earlier the lord Vuk had been slain, he took and carried his bones into the Serbian land, and brought them to Despot Stefan, and explained everything to him, saying: With Musa it is not possible to live otherwise than by war. Thereupon the pious Stefan, hearing this, gathered all his army and came into the regions of Pirot, and having driven out the Turks he plundered some part of Musa’s land. And Musa sent his envoy to the Despot, and the Despot again returned to his home.” A little while before these events, Đurađ, the Despot’s nephew, had been lured by deceit by Musa and was in his army. Musa then tried to poison Đurađ, but God saved him. For after the poison he took a certain antidote, and so he did not die, but only suffered from illness. Đurađ had by now repented and in good time informed his mother Mara, the Despot’s sister, so that she might reconcile him with his uncle and “that they might resolve to live as befits the pious.” And the magnanimous Despot received him “as a father his much-longed-for son.” One night after this Đurađ, with part of his army, fled from Musa to Selymbria, and from there came to Thessalonica. Secretly hiding and fleeing, he at last somehow reached Serbia from Thessalonica, and the Despot had already sent an army to meet him. “And when he came to his fatherland and to his most excellent uncle, then there was unspeakable joy. For then the all-knowing, all-wise Artist and almighty Worker gathered into one the divided members of the Church and strengthened our state. For from then on uncle and nephew could see one another joyfully, as father and son.” In this way the Brankovići were at last reconciled with the Lazarevići, and there was no more strife between them, for the pious Despot, having no heir, left his throne and state to this Đurađ Branković, the later Despot of Serbia. And the final downfall of the wicked Turk Musa came about thus. In the Asia Minor region of the Turkish state the master at that time was the third son of Bayezid, Mehmed. The Byzantine emperor Manuel strove to have Mehmed conclude an alliance with the mighty Serbian Despot, so that the beast-like Musa might be destroyed, since everywhere he “filled the lands with the slaughter of men and with blood.” The Despot agreed to this alliance, for he too desired the destruction of Musa, as did the rulers of Hungary and Bosnia. The agreement and alliance against Musa was concluded in Kruševac (in the month of May, 1413).