Jovan Vladimir - Cult

Cult

Jovan Vladimir was buried in Prespa, in the same church in front of which he was martyred. His relics soon became famous as miraculously healing, attracting many people to his tomb. Shortly after his death he was recognized as a martyr and saint, being commemorated on 22 May, his feast day. At that time, saints were recognized without any formal rite of canonization. Vladimir was the first ruler of a Serbian state who was elevated to sainthood. The rulers from the Nemanjić dynasty, who reigned over the Serbian state which grew around Raška, would almost all be canonized—starting with Nemanja, the saintly founder of the dynasty.

Several years after his burial, Kosara transported the remains to Duklja. She interred him in the Prečista Krajinska Church, near his court, in the region of Krajina. The relics drew many devotees to the church, which became a center of pilgrimage. Kosara did not remarry; at her request, she was interred in Prečista Krajinska, at the feet of her husband. In around 1215—when Krajina was under the rule of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanjić—the relics were presumably removed from this church and transported to Dyrrhachium by the troops of Michael I, the despot of Epirus. At that time Despot Michael had briefly captured from Serbia the city of Skadar, which is only about 20 km (12 mi) east of the church. Jovan Vladimir was mentioned as the patron saint of Dyrrhachium in a Greek liturgical text.

In 1368 Dyrrhachium was taken from the Angevins by Karlo Thopia, an Albanian lord. In 1381 he rebuilt, in Byzantine style, a church ruined in an earthquake in the narrow valley of the stream Kusha, a tributary of the Shkumbin River—near the site of the town of Elbasan in central Albania (built in the 15th century). The church was dedicated to Saint Jovan Vladimir, as the inscription which Thopia placed above its south entrance declared in Greek, Latin, and Serbian. The saint's relics were kept in a reliquary, a wooden casket, which was enclosed in a shrine, 3 m (9.8 ft) in height, within the church.

Serbian scholar Stojan Novaković theorized that Vladimir was buried near Elbasan immediately after his death. Novaković conjectured that the earthquake which ruined the old church happened during Thopia's rule, and that Thopia reinstated the relics in the rebuilt church. If Vladimir was previously buried in Duklja, Novaković reasoned, he would not be absent, as he was, from Serbian sources written during the reign of the Nemanjić dynasty, who ruled over Duklja (later named Zeta) from 1186 to 1371. Novaković did not consider the idea that the relics might have been removed from Duklja to Dyrrhachium in around 1215. He commented on the chronicle's account that Kosara transported Vladimir's body "to a place known as Krajina, where his court was": While his court was possibly in the region of Krajina before his captivity, after he married Kosara it could have been near Elbasan, in the territory of Dyrrachium he received from Tsar Samuel. He was interred near the latter court, which was replaced in the chronicle with the former.

An Orthodox monastery grew around the church near Elbasan, and became the center of veneration of Saint Jovan Vladimir, which was limited to an area around the monastery. In the latter half of the 15th century, the territory of present-day Albania was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, in which Islam was the privileged religion. After losing the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Ottomans went on the defensive in Europe. In the climate of revival of Christianity in the Ottoman Empire, a hagiography of the saint and a service to him were written in Greek in 1690 at the monastery. It stood under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, which became a notable spiritual and artistic force during the leadership of Archbishop Joasaph from 1719 to 1745. In this period, the veneration of Saint Jovan Vladimir was promoted in southern Albania and western Macedonia, as well as beyond the archbishopric, in Bulgaria and among the Serbs in the Kingdom of Hungary.

The monastery became the see of the newly founded Archbishopric of Dyrrhachium in the second half of the 18th century. In more recent times the monastery fell into disrepair, and in the 1960s it was closed by the Communist authorities of Albania; in 1967 the reliquary with the saint's relics was moved to St Mary's Church in Elbasan. The dilapidated monastery was returned to the Church in the 1990s. The restoration of its church and other buildings was completed in 2005. Since around 1995 the relics have been kept in the Orthodox cathedral of Tirana, the capital of Albania, and are brought back to the monastery only for the saint's feast day.

Each year on the Feast of Saint Jovan Vladimir, a great number of devotees come to the monastery, popularly known as Shingjon among Albanians. In the morning, the reliquary is placed at the center of the church under a canopy, before being opened. After the morning liturgy has been celebrated, chanting priests carry the reliquary three times around the church, followed by the devotees, who hold lit candles. The reliquary is then placed in front of the church, to be kissed by the believers. The priests give them pieces of cotton that have been kept inside the reliquary since the previous feast. There are numerous stories about people, both Christians and Muslims, who were healed after they prayed before the saint's relics.

On the eve of the Feast of Saint Jovan Vladimir, an All-Night Vigil is celebrated in the churches dedicated to the saint, as is celebrated in other Orthodox churches on the eves of their patron saints' feasts. The liturgical celebration of Vladimir's feast day begins on the evening of 21 May, because, in the Orthodox Church, the liturgical day is reckoned from one evening to the next. Despite the name of the service, the All-Night Vigil is usually not held throughout the entire night, and may last only for two hours. In the Church of St Jovan Vladimir near Elbasan, it lasts from 9 pm to 3 am. Hymns either to Jovan Vladimir or to another saint whose commemoration falls on 22 May, are chanted, on that liturgical day, at set points during services in all Orthodox churches.

Saint Jovan Vladimir is the patron saint of the modern-day town of Bar in south Montenegro, built at its present location in 1976 about 4 km (2.5 mi) from the site of the old town of Bar, which was destroyed in a war and abandoned in 1878. A religious procession celebrating the saint passes on his feast day through the town's streets with church banners and icons. The procession is usually led by the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral. The bronze sculpture King Jovan Vladimir, 4 m (13 ft) in height, was installed at the central square of Bar in 2001; it is a work by sculptor Nenad Šoškić. Although Vladimir was only a prince, he is referred to as "king" in the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja. He is called the Holy King in southeastern Montenegro, and hence the hillock thought to be the site of his court is named Kraljič (kralj means "king").