The presentation of the Collection of Papers “Holy King Milutin: Ruler at the Crossroads of the Worlds” published by the Foundation of the Holy Monastery Hilandar, was held in the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, on Thursday, October 5th, 2023, starting at 6 p.m. The contributions were specially written for this occasion and together form a collection of monographic type that was published on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of the Holy King.
At the beginning of the promotion, Gordana Gavrić, advisor to the director of the Foundation of the Holy Monastery Hilandar, greeted the audience and pointed out that in the run-up to King’s Day, the day when the Holy King Stefan the First-Crowned is celebrated in Kraljevo, as the day of the city, it is the right time to talk about his grandson, the Holy King Milutin, who built the famous church of Saint Joachim and Anna in Studenica Monastery, small, but artistically from the Palaiologos era. After that, she introduced Danica Popović, PhD, one of the editors of the Collection, who devoted her entire working life to the study of the Serbian Middle Ages, and was especially focused on cults of saints and cults of relics. She also emphasized that the Collection of Papers “Holy King Milutin: Ruler at the Crossroads of the Worlds” was awarded the “Ilarion Ruvarac” award of Matica Srpska and the “Vladimir Ćorović” award for outstanding contribution in the field of historical science.
Milivoj Ranđić, director of the Foundation of the Holy Monastery Hilandar, briefly reflected on the exceptional place that King Milutin has in the history of our Middle Ages. On the one hand, he appears to be a Renaissance ruler, similar to his contemporaries in Europe, while the Church, on the other hand, has marked him as a saint. The Collection, which also has a monographic character, represents an epochal view from the aspect of current knowledge and includes 16 authors, edited by three exceptional scientists Danica Popović, PhD, Smilja Marijanović Dušanić, PhD, and Srđan Pirivatrić, PhD.
Danica Popović, PhD, one of the co-editors of the Collection of Papers “Holy King Milutin: Ruler at the Crossroads of the Worlds”, pointed out that, viewed from the editorial point of view, she concluded at the beginning of work on the Collection of Papers that it was possible to take some further steps in this matter. King Milutin is a person who was destined by historical fate to live in a very turbulent time. He was an exceptional military leader and a victorious one, an excellent diplomat and a king who carried out significant administrative changes and therefore has already occupied an important place in history. But in addition to that, there is another part, in which his awareness of belonging to the sacred lineage of Nemanjić plays an important role, and he considered it his duty to take care of this heritage. Danica Popović gave an overview of the complete publication, which is organized into three large units: the first, in which the authors deal with the political history of the time in which King Milutin lived; the second, which is called “Ruling Power” and where a group of authors deals with the topics of the structure and implementation of Milutin’s rule and his relationship with the church, the nobility and the army. The third part, entitled “Royal Piety, Spiritual Life and Candlemas Celebration” is devoted to the king’s rich founding activity, especially the relation to the Monastery Hilandar, of which he is the second founder as well as other aspects of his piety.