Life
Saint Maksim Branković, Serbian Despot and Metropolitan, was the son of Despot Stefan Branković and Saint Angelina the Serbian, and the brother of Saint Jovan Branković. He was born in the second half of the fifteenth century, at a time when the Serbian despotic family lived in exile, wandering through Albania, Italy, and Hungary in search of protection and a new homeland. That life-school of exile, pain, and hope shaped Maksim’s spiritual character — it taught him to place his trust in God rather than in transient earthly power.
He grew up in the embrace of a family that was deeply believing and steeped in the monastic spirit. His father Stefan the Despot, despite the blindness of his bodily eyes, was a man of extraordinary spiritual perspicacity, while his mother Angelina was a pillar of piety, goodness, and ecclesiastical zeal. In such a home Maksim received not only the noble inheritance of Serbian despotism, but the inheritance of holiness — a gift more precious than any crown.
After the death of his elder brother Jovan in 1502, Maksim briefly assumed the title of Serbian despot in Hungary. However, secular power was not his true field of activity. Feeling the call to the spiritual life, Maksim received the monastic tonsure and embarked on the path of hierarchical service. He became Metropolitan of Wallachia, pastorally governing the ecclesiastical life in the Romanian lands under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. As Metropolitan, Maksim endeavored in practice to carry out what he had learned in his parental home — the strictness of monastic rules, care for the poor, zeal in worship, and dedication to learning.
Tradition describes him as a man of gentle nature but firm convictions — one who did not yield in matters of faith or truth, yet always dealt with those who had erred with love and patience. He was an heir to the best hesychastic tradition of his God-bearing ancestors, but also a man who knew that spirituality must be embodied in concrete care for people and in the building of church institutions.
After his period of metropolitan service in Wallachia, Maksim returned to the Serbian lands, where he continued his spiritual activity as a bishop. Living and working in the difficult times of Ottoman expansion and constant pressure on the Christian population of the Balkans, every day of his episcopal labor was simultaneously a witness of faith amid insecurity and danger. He did not retreat before trials — rather he accepted them as circumstances proper to the ascetic struggle.
He reposed peacefully in the early decades of the sixteenth century, and was buried in the monastery of Krušedol on Fruška Gora — the very monastery his mother Angelina had built, in which rested the relics of his father Stefan the Despot and his brother Jovan. Thus Krušedol became the shrine of the entire holy Branković family, a monastery which in its embrace preserves one of the most luminous families of Serbian history.
The Serbian Church celebrates Saint Maksim Branković on January 18 by the Julian calendar, near the winter Theophany — in a time when heaven is close to the earth and the light of baptism illumines every corner of the Orthodox world. We turn to him as an intercessor before God, especially in times of ecclesiastical trials and spiritual difficulties, trusting that one who himself bore the episcopal burden in difficult times understands the affliction of every Christian.
Tropar (Tone 4)
Son of the holy mother Angelina and brother of the saint Jovan, O Archbishop Maksim and Despot — thou didst preserve thy inherited holiness as a treasure and didst hand it on to the people in the hierarchical office. Intercede with Christ God that the shepherds of His Church may be as zealous and holy as thou wast, and that He may grant the faithful steadfastness of faith and love for the commandments of God.
Kontakion (Tone 2)
Rooted in the holy family, adorned with the archiepiscopal crown, O blessed Maksim — thou didst pastorally guard the Church of Christ in difficult times. Intercede for us who struggle with the trials of the earthly age, that we too may attain the eternal joy with all the saints.