Isaija the Monk ( 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 Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

. 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'' ...

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

Serres Serres ( ) 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 Northern Greece. The c ...

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 () is a Macedonian Orthodox monastery located near Kriva Palanka, North Macedonia, from the Bulgarian border on Osogovo Mountain. Osogovo Monastery is home to an art colony and to an architecture school during the summer.Pg ...

on Osogovo Mountain in northern Macedonia, and then to

Hilandar Monastery The Hilandar Monastery (, , , ) is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbs, Serbian Serbian Orthodox Church, Orthodox monastery there. It was founded in 1198 by two Ser ...

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; ) is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece directly on the Aegean Sea. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox monasticism. The mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, 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-Cyrl, Лазар Хребељановић; – 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, referre ...

. 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. Isaija's

dragoman A dragoman was an Interpreter (communication), interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish language, Turkish-, Arabic language, Arabic-, and Persian language, Persian-speaking countries and polity, polities of the Middle East and ...

on the mission to Constantinople was Nicodemus of Tismana, 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 The Battle of Maritsa or Battle of Chernomen (; in tr. ''Second Battle of Maritsa'') took place at the Maritsa River near the village of Chernomen (present-day Ormenio, Greece) on 26 September 1371 between Ottoman forces commanded by Lala S ...

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 Serbian Cyrillic texts

Work

See also

References