Maximus Branković

Saint Maxim Branković, in the world Đorđe (George) Branković, was the last male of the Branković dynasty and titular despot of Serbia from 1486 to 1497, then a monk, archbishop of Belgrade and diplomat in Wallachia. He fell asleep on 18 January 1516. After his death he was venerated as a saint, and the Serbian Orthodox Church canonized him. He is commemorated on 18 January.

Youth and rule He was born in 1461 or 1462, son of Stefan Branković, exiled despot of Serbia from 1458 to 1459, and the Albanian princess Angelina Arianiti, daughter of Gjergj Arianiti, while his parents lived in the Shkodër region. The family then moved to northern Italy, to the castle of Belgrado in Friuli. After his father's death, in 1476, Đorđe became his principal heir. In 1479 Emperor Friedrich III gave them the castle of Weitensfeld in Carinthia and he moved there with the family. His cousin Vuk Branković, titular despot of Serbia, died on 16 April 1485 without heirs, and King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary looked for a suitable successor and invited to Hungary the two remaining brothers, Đorđe and Jovan. Đorđe came to Hungary in 1486 and received from the king the title of despot of Serbia and the towns of Kupinik (Kupinovo), Slankamen and Berkasovo in Syrmia. In 1487 he married Isabella del Balzo (died 1498), daughter of the duke of Nardò. From 1493 he ruled jointly with his brother Jovan, by the Hungarian custom that high offices be held by two. In 1494 the two brothers fought Lawrence of Ilok, and in December they took Mitrovica. A Serbian account of the sixteenth century says he "fought valiantly ten years against the Hagarenes", the Turks, and that he "kept himself pure" from his wife.

Monk and archbishop In 1497, or at the start of 1496 according to other sources, Đorđe gave all titles and possessions to his brother Jovan and took the monastic habit with the name Maxim. Some think he was driven to this by the belief of the time that from 1492, the year 7000 of the Byzantine era, the "second age" had begun, when the world might perish at any moment. He built the monastery of Krušedol in Syrmia. After his brother's death, in 1502, King Vladislaus II married Jovan's widow, Jelena Jakšić, to the Serbian nobleman Ivaniš Berislavić, to whom he gave the title of despot. Soon after Maxim left Hungary for Wallachia, where Prince Radu the Great received him and entrusted him with important diplomatic missions. In 1507 he mediated peace between Radu and the prince of Moldavia, Bogdan III. His name appears in a diptych of the hierarchs there, and some historians believe he was bishop in a Wallachian diocese or even Metropolitan of Ungro-⁠Wallachia, as the Greek sources also say, according to which Nephon II ordained him bishop of Râmnic in 1505; others point out there is no direct proof. On returning to Hungary he was, from 1513, Metropolitan of Belgrade. He fell asleep on 18 January 1516 and was buried at Krušedol, his monastery.

Veneration The members of the Branković dynasty were known for their Orthodox devotion, and Maxim continued the family tradition. The first signs of his veneration appear in 1523, when Belgrade had already been two years in Turkish hands and Krušedol was near the Turkish border. In those hard times his veneration was founded as a raising of spirit for the Serbs who fought with the Hungarians and other Christians against the Turks. Then, in the same place and with the same aim, veneration of all the members of the family was founded: his father, Stefan the Blind, his mother Angelina and his brother Jovan. A monk of Krušedol of the sixteenth century sang in services all the last Brankovićs and wrote for Mother Angelina and for Maxim a life as well. The monastery was burned by the Turks in 1716 and the holy relics destroyed, only Angelina's left hand and small parts of the others surviving. Maxim had with Isabella a daughter, Elizabeth, married to Alessio Span, and perhaps Despina Milica, married to the Wallachian prince Neagoe Basarab.