Stefan Uroš III of Dečani

Saint King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski ruled Serbia from 1322 to 1331 and is named for the great monastery he founded, Visoki Dečani. He was a son of King Stefan Milutin and father of Emperor Stefan Dušan. The Serbian Orthodox Church canonized him in 1339 and keeps his feast on 11 November.

Youth and exile

He was born around 1276 (some sources say later), before his father came to the throne. The sources do not agree which of Milutin’s wives was his mother. As a youth he was sent by his father as a hostage to the court of the khan Nogai of the Golden Horde, in 1292-1293, to keep the peace with the Tatars. He stayed there almost seven years and could flee only after Nogai’s death, in 1299. After his return he married Theodora, daughter of the Bulgarian tsar Smilets, and Milutin gave him Zeta, usually held by the heir to the crown, where his son Stefan Dušan was born.

In 1314 Dečanski rebelled against his father. The revolt was defeated, he was captured, taken to Skopje and condemned to be blinded, then sent into exile at Constantinople, with his wife and sons. The blinding was not total; according to some sources it did not happen at all, and in frescoes he is shown with healthy eyes. At Constantinople he lived at the court of Emperor Andronikos II. His wife Theodora died in exile, and he married a second time, the Byzantine princess Maria Palaiologina. Bishop Danilo of Hum, at his request, informed Archbishop Nikodim of Serbia, who persuaded Milutin to call him back. In 1320-1321 he returned to Serbia and received the estate of Budimlje.

Reign

Milutin died on 29 October 1321, leaving no arrangement about the succession. Dečanski’s half-⁠brother Konstantin was crowned in Zeta, and a cousin, Stefan Vladislav II, also made a claim. Dečanski then showed that his sight was intact, as a sign of God’s mercy, and the people rallied to him. On 6 January 1322 Archbishop Nikodim crowned him king, and his son Dušan as young king. Konstantin was defeated and killed. Vladislav, supported by Hungarians, Bulgarians and Bosnians, was beaten in 1324 and fled to Hungary. Relations with Dubrovnik were tense between 1324 and 1326, and in 1326 Serbia lost Hum to Bosnia.

Dečanski generally stayed allied with Andronikos II and took no part in the Byzantine civil war. Tsar Michael Asen III repudiated Anna, Dečanski’s sister, and married a Byzantine princess, and together with Andronikos III he marched against Serbia in 1330. At Velbazhd, on 28 July 1330, Dečanski, helped by Dušan, defeated the Bulgarian army, and Michael died. Stefan made peace with the Bulgarians and left on the throne his sister, Tsarina Anna, and her son John Stephen. He then pushed the border south into Byzantine Macedonia, and Serbia became the strongest country in the Balkans.

Death and veneration

In 1331 relations with his son Dušan worsened; from February there were clashes between their armies, and at the end of August Dušan besieged the palace at Nerodimlje and captured his father. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Zvečan. He died on 11 November 1331, in unclear circumstances; according to Gregory Tsamblak he was strangled by order of his son, and according to another account he died of a heart attack in prison. He is buried in Dečani monastery, his foundation, completed and consecrated by his son Dušan, where his incorrupt relics lie. The monastery is today a World Heritage Site. He had with Theodora Dušan and Dušica, and with Maria Simeon Siniša, Theodora and Helena.