Spiridon of Peć

Saint Spiridon was Patriarch of the Serbian Church with his see at Peć in the years 1380-1389, in the time of Prince Lazar. He was a close supporter of Lazar and gave communion to the Serbian army before the battle of Kosovo, on the eve of Vidovdan in 1389, and died on 11 August 1389. His relics lie in the church of Saint Demetrius in the Patriarchate of Peć. He is commemorated on 30 August.

Beginnings

His life before the patriarchate is little known. The old sources give him as a native of Niš and a monastic brother of the Saint Panteleimon monastery on Athos, and the historian M. Purković supposed that he was bishop of Caesaropolis and then metropolitan of Melnik, since two acts from Vatopedi of October 1377 mention a Metropolitan Spiridon. He may have been the same as the ascetic of Dečani of that name. He belonged to the Serbian cultural elite, which brought from Athos a new style of Slavonic orthography. The introductory parts of five charters of Prince Lazar are presumed to be his work.

Patriarch

He was elected in place of Patriarch Jefrem, who withdrew in 1379 or 1380. Prince Lazar and the members of the council begged Jefrem not to leave the throne, but he remained firm and proposed Spiridon as successor. He was enthroned after 3 May 1380 (the Bulgarian source gives the election on 17 May 1379, a Russian source gives the patriarchate as 1382-1388). The historian M. Petrović thinks that Jefrem withdrew because he opposed the policy of Lazar and Spiridon of rejecting the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the historian M. Spremić that Jefrem had been set as a compromise between the Serbian Church and Constantinople and was forced to withdraw by Lazar's followers. Spiridon was close to Lazar, and their common work was the renewal of the Nemanjić ideal of harmony between state and Church. He confirmed Lazar's charters for Gornjak, of 1378, and for the voivode Obrad Dragosalić, of 1387, and on 2 March 1382 at Žiča the founding charter of the Drenča monastery, the foundation of the monk Dorotheus and his son Daniel, future Patriarch Daniel III, was written before him. Nikodim Mirčeta mentions Patriarch Spiridon in 1387, copying a Book of Seasons at the monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren. On 19 January 1388 he confirmed the foundation of Obrad Dragojlović, the church of the Mother of God at Kukonje. He led in a very hard time, of the great advance of the Turks, who conquered Sofia, Serres, Veria and Ioannina.

Kosovo and his end

According to the testimonies of the time, he gave communion to the Serbian army before the battle of Kosovo, on the eve of Vidovdan in 1389. He outlived the tragedy of Kosovo by barely two months, dying on 11 August 1389, according to Daniel's typikon of 1416. After Lazar's death he remained in alliance with his widow, Milica. He was succeeded by Jefrem, who returned for a short time, then was replaced by Daniel III. The sources say the patriarch cared for monasteries in the hard years of ecclesiastical and civil disorder. In the Church's songs he is called the spiritual flute, whence it is inferred that he wrote sacred songs for the Serbian Church.