The Holy Great-Martyr Lazar, Prince of Serbia
Lazar was one of the Serbian noblemen who ruled the Serbian empire after the death of Tsar Dušan. After the death of Tsar Uroš, Patriarch Ephraim crowned Lazar as the Serbian Tsar. Lazar sent a delegation with the monk Isaiah to Constantinople to implore the patriarch to lift the anathema from the Serbian people. He fought against the Turkish powers on several occasions. Finally, on June 15, 1389, he clashed with the Turkish Emperor Amurat at Kosovo Polje [the Field of Blackbirds], where he was be- headed. His body was translated to and interred in Ravanica, the monastery he founded near Ćuprija, and was later was translated to [New] Ravanica in Srem, and from there, during the Second World War (1942), it was translated to Belgrade and placed in the Cathedral Church of the Holy Archangel Michael, where it rests today incorrupt, extending comfort and healing to all those who turn to him with prayer.*) St. Lazar restored the monasteries of Hilandar [Mount Athos] and Gornjak. He built Ravanica and Lazarica [in Kruševac] and was a benefactor of the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon [Mount Athos] as well as many other churches and monasteries.
