Duke Dimitrije Pepić (died 1566), was a 16th-century endower and benefactor from what is today, modern day Kratovo, North Macedonia.

Dukes of Kratovo

Dimitrije Pepić belonged to the most famous family of mid 16th century Kratovo. The vicinity of the town was very rich in various ores and had famous mines. The exploitation of these mines was leased by the Ottoman authorities and in 16th century we find the Pepić family as the renters of Kratovo mines. The most famous men in family were brothers Nikola, Dimitrije and Grigorije. The wealthy Dimitrije Pepić bore the title of '' knez'' (

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

) and was the most important person in the town, lord to its Christian inhabitants with a wide jurisdiction in things not of direct concern to the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

(family, Church etc.). This is best seen from an inscription of an

evangeliary The Evangeliary or Book of the Gospels is a liturgical book containing only those portions of the four gospels which are read during Mass or in other public offices of the Church. The corresponding terms in Latin are and . The Evangeliary develo ...

written in 1563 „in the days of most honored and Christ-loving master Duke Dimitrije“ (''u danima blagočastivog i hristoljubivog gospodara kneza Dimitrija''). After Pepićs the next family of Kratovo Dukes was Mihailo Bojčić, of whom brothers Andrija and Nikola are mentioned in 1581.

Donations to the Church

Duke Dimitrije, together with his brothers, was among the biggest donors of the Ohrid Archbishopric. In 1550 Dimitrije became the

oeconomus ''Oikonomos'' ( el, οἰκονόμος, from - 'house' and - 'rule, law'), latinized œconomus, oeconomus, or economos, was an Ancient Greek word meaning "household manager." In Byzantine times, the term was used as a title of a manager or tr ...

of the Archbishopric, a prestigious duty reserved only for the most influential men. Dimitrije renovated or donated many Orthodox monasteries, such as Lesnovo (together with his brother Nikola), Saint Nicholas in Toplica, Slepče (1543), Treskavec, Prečista (near Kičevo) and

Saint Panteleimon Saint Pantaleon ( el, Παντελεήμων, russian: Пантелеи́мон, translit=Panteleímon; "all-compassionate"), counted in the West among the late-medieval Fourteen Holy Helpers and in the East as one of the Holy Unmercenary Hea ...

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...

. A portrait of Dimitrije Pepić as the endower of the monastery can be seen in the monastery of Prečista (''Sveta Bogorodica Prečista Kičevska'').

References

1566 deaths People from Kratovo, North Macedonia {{RMacedonia-bio-stub