Isaija the Monk ( sr, Инок Исаија or in English: Inok Isaija; ca. 1300–after 1375), also known as Elder Isaija (Elder Isaiah) () and Isaija of Serres (Elder Isaiah of Serres) (), was a 14th-century Serbian monk, one of many Serbian monk-scribes in the Middle Ages who translated ancient Greek manuscripts into the Serbian recension of Old Church Slavonic. His major work is the translation of the works of

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (or Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite) was a Greek author, Christian theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, who wrote a set of works known as the ''Corpus Areopagiticum'' o ...

from Byzantine Greek. Isaija's commentaries on political events occur in the context of the fall of the Serbian principality of

Serres Sérres ( el, Σέρρες ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northe ...

in 1371, which led the descendants of these local governors to accept Ottoman suzerainty. As a young boy, Isaija joined the monastic life of the Serbian Orthodox Church affiliated to St. Joachim of

Osogovo Monastery Osogovo Monastery ( mk, Осоговски Манастир) is a Macedonian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox monastery located near Kriva Palanka, North Macedonia, from the Bulgarian border on Osogovo, Osogovo Mountain. Osogovo Monastery is ...

on Osogovo Mountain in northern Macedonia, and then to

Hilandar Monastery The Hilandar Monastery ( sr-cyr, Манастир Хиландар, Manastir Hilandar, , el, Μονή Χιλανδαρίου) is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian monastery there. It wa ...

on Mount Athos in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

, where he spent the rest of his life. In Hilandar, he worked as a translator and became very respected by Serbian rulers as attested to by the anonymous author of ''The Life of the Monk Isaija'', probably written in the late 14th century. Isaija was a very prominent individual during the reign of Stephen Dushan and

Lazar of Serbia Lazar Hrebeljanović ( sr-cyr, Лазар Хребељановић; ca. 1329 – 15 June 1389) was a medieval Serbian ruler who created the largest and most powerful state on the territory of the disintegrated Serbian Empire. Lazar's state, ...

. He was a monk with an excellent reputation and he also excelled as a writer, translator, and diplomat. Between 1353 and 1363 he travelled throughout Serbia; he later served as a Serbian diplomat, and he proved to be very skilled during the negotiations initiated by Prince Lazar in order to reconcile the Serbian and the Greek Church, which was achieved in 1375 after resolving difficult diplomatic and ecclesiastical issues with Patriarch

Philotheus I of Constantinople Philotheos Kokkinos (Thessaloniki, c. 1300 – Constantinople, 1379) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for two periods from November 1353 to 1354 and 1364 to 1376, and a leader of the Byzantine monastic and religious revival in t ...

. Isaija's

dragoman A dragoman or Interpretation was an interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish-, Arabic-, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A ...

on the mission to Constantinople was

Nicodemus of Tismana Nikodim Tismanski, also known as Nikodim Osvećeni, Nikodim Vratnenski, Nikodim Grčić, and in Romanian, Nikodim de la Tismana (Prilep, today in North Macedonia, then Byzantine Empire, c. 1320 – Tismana, Walachia, now Romania, 26 December 140 ...

, Prince Lazar's relative. At the end of his Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite translation, Isaija added an inscription and used a cryptogram to write his name. Isaija had an anonymous disciple, known only as Isaija's Disciple, who wrote the biography of "Isaija the Monk". No biographical data of this author is extant. He is known in Serbian literature only as ''Nepoznati Svetogorac,'' the Anonymous Athonite.

Work

The climate of despair which set in after the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 is expressed in a long personal comment, written by Isaija the Monk. This literary comment is appended to Isaija's translation of the works of

into Old Serbian which, he says, he had started ''" in happy times,"'' but had finished it after the battle, ''"when Ishmelites spread over the entire land as birds in the air, slaying some of the Christians, sending others into slavery... And the land became deprived of all that is good, people, beast, the fruit of all kind. There was no prince, nor leader or teacher among people, nobody to save them... And truly was the living envying the dead."''

References

* Mateja Matejić and Dragan Milivojević, "Anthology of Medieval Serbian Literature in English" (1978, Slavica Publishers, Inc., Columbus, Ohio) pages 159-163. {{DEFAULTSORT:Isaija the Monk 14th-century Serbian writers Medieval Serbian Orthodox clergy 14th-century births 14th-century deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Translators from Greek Medieval European scribes Serbian monks 14th-century Christian monks People associated with Hilandar Monastery

Work

See also

References