BOGOODABRANOST KRALjA MILUTINA U ŽITIJU DANILA DRUGOG

Abstract

Hagiographies of old Serbian literature speak of rulers as individuals chosen by God, for the benefit of the people and the country they will rule. Archbishop Danilo, writing about his contemporary, points out that King Milutin surpassed all his predecessors in terms of gender and position in the country. Apart from the typical elements - describing the good deeds of the king, as well as his imposing fundraising endeavors, the peculiarity of this life is reflected in the constant emphasis on God's help to the great king during military campaigns. Regardless of whether the initiator of the conflict was King Milutin himself or the attack on Serbian lands came from the other side, those who opposed the king were punished with a horrible death, thwarted in the endeavor or diplomatically deterred from the original plan. The help that comes from the metaphysical spaces of Good and Truth is at the same time a description of miracles, but the kind of miracle that is less talked about in medieval literature - when the intervention of the Lord punishes, in the already mentioned ways, those who chose the path of evil. Since every attack of others on the Serbian king and the Serbian land is clearly motivated by the invention of the dishonorable, placing King Milutin in opposition to such exponents of reality indirectly speaks of his godliness, correctness of his decisions and actions, but also his orientation towards eschatology.