Life
Saint Stefan the First-Crowned, the first crowned Serbian king and a saintly descendant of the Nemanjić dynasty, was born at the end of the twelfth century as the son of Grand Župan Stefan Nemanja — later canonized as Saint Simeon the Myrrh-streamer — and his wife Ana. He grew up at a time when the Serbian state was on the rise and Nemanja’s authority over the Serbian lands had reached its fullness.
After Nemanja’s abdication in 1196 and departure to the Holy Mountain, Stefan assumed the rule as Grand Župan of Raška. This was no easy inheritance: he had an elder brother — Vukan, who ruled Zeta — and they immediately clashed over power. Vukan, with the aid of Hungary and the papal curia, temporarily displaced Stefan, who found himself in a difficult position. Stefan, however, managed with the mediation of his brother Sava and reliance on Byzantium to return to power and consolidate it.
The true turning point in Stefan’s reign came in 1217 when he received a royal crown from Pope Honorius III, making him the first Serbian king — hence the name “the First-Crowned.” This gave Serbia an international legitimacy equal to the other Christian kingdoms of the West. But Stefan was not inclined toward Latin Christianity: only three years later, in 1220, he received a second, Orthodox coronation ceremony from the hands of his brother Sava, who had just been consecrated as the first Serbian archbishop by the Patriarch of Constantinople. This second act was spiritually and politically more significant for the Serbian people: the Serbian Church became autocephalous, and Stefan became its first king under ecclesiastical blessing.
Stefan the First-Crowned was also a writer. He composed the “Life of Saint Simeon” — a hagiography of his father — one of the first works of written Serbian literature, distinguished by stylistic beauty and deep filial reverence for the founder of the dynasty. In it he describes Nemanja’s virtues, the building of Studenica, and the departure to the Holy Mountain, as well as the miracles that occurred at the tomb of the Myrrh-streamer. This work testifies to Stefan’s theological formation and his deep connection with the monastic tradition of the Nemanjićs.
He ruled for nearly three decades and in that time significantly expanded and consolidated the Serbian state. At the end of his life Stefan received the monastic tonsure under the name Simeon, thereby inheriting the monastic spiritual tradition of his father. He reposed in the Lord in 1227 and was buried in his foundation, the monastery of Studenica, which he himself had aided and augmented. His holy remains rest in Studenica to this day, an object of devout veneration.
The Serbian Church canonized him, enrolling him among the holy-born Nemanjićs — the holy lineage that gave the Serbian people both statehood and spirituality. Together with his father Simeon and his brother Sava, Stefan constitutes the holy triad of founders of the Serbian state and church tradition.
Tropar (Tone 4)
First-Crowned adornment of the Serbian Church, sprung from the root of the holy Nemanjić lineage, who didst inherit piety from thy father Simeon and receive the blessing of thy brother Sava — O King and monk Stefan, holy one, pray to Christ God to save our souls.
Kontakion (Tone 8)
Crowned with the royal crown and the monastic schema, twice adorned with a crown, and having received the blessing of thy brother Archbishop Sava, thou didst establish the Serbian Church in freedom, and didst gloriously record the life of thy father. Pray to Christ God, O holy Stefan, to save our souls.