Holy martyr king Lazar Saint Sava’s ideal and plan for his whole nation was: ‘Give up everything for Christ, but Christ for nothing.’

No one has ever realized this ideal and plan to such a full extent as the holy and great martyr, Tsar Lazar. He brought it about for his whole nation when he decided in favor of the Heavenly Kingdom and offered up himself as a sacrifice on the field of Kosovo, together with the whole Serbian people. He did this from the purely evangelic reasons.

We die with Christ, to live forever”, he told his soldiers. That Kosovo’s declaration and testament is regarded as s covenant which the Serb people made with God – and sealed with martyrs’ blood. Since then all Serbs faithful to that Testament regard themselves as the people of God, Christ’s New Testament nation, heavenly Serbia, part of God’s New Israel.

When reflecting on the choice the angel of God offered him when his nation was threatened by the Turks, Lazar prayed. Flying came a swift grey bird, a falcon, And he carried in his beak a swallow. But behold and see! ’Tis not a falcon, ’Tis the holy man of God, Elias, and he does not bear with him a swallow, but a letter from God’s Holy Mother. He bears the letter to Kosovo, drops it on the Tsar’s knees from the heavens, and thus speaks the letter to the monarch: King Lazar before the battle “Tsar Lazar, thou Prince of noble lineage, what will you now choose to be your kingdom? Say, do you desire a heavenly kingdom, or do you prefer an earthly kingdom? If you now choose an earthly kingdom, knights may girdle swords and saddle horses, tighten saddle-girths and ride to battle— You will charge the Turks and crush their army! But if you prefer a heavenly kingdom, build yourself a church upon Kossovo, let not the foundations be of marble, let them be of samite and of scarlet…. And to all your warriors and their leaders God will give the sacraments and orders, for your army shall most surely perish, And you too, shall perish with your army.”When the Tsar had read the holy letter, pondered he, and pondered in this manner: “O, Dearest God, what shall I do, and how? Shall I choose the earth? Shall I choose Your skies? And if I choose the kingdom, If I choose an earthly kingdom now, earthly kingdoms are such passing things- A heavenly kingdom, raging in the dark, endures eternally.” And Lazarus chose heaven, not the earth…

Lazar and his soldiers received the Holy Mysteries and entered into the struggle against the Turks, Lazar having chosen the heavenly kingdom. The Ottomans, led by the Sultan Murat, had already conquered the greater part of the southern Balkan peninsula and pushed onward to impose Islam and their barbaric rule. The holy Lazar, with a desire not only to preserve the Serbs but to liberate his brothers Greeks, entered into battle “for the precious Cross and golden freedom.” Despite all of the Serbian army perished in the battle, it was a spiritual victory as the epic says in the end “all was holy and honorable and acceptable to gracious God.”

 

Noteworthy in the life of the holy tsar-martyr Lazar are his Christian upbringing, his youthful piety, his love for monastics, and his “evangelic love for God and his fellow man.” These characteristics are reflected in his gathering of ascetics to Serbia, his restoration of parish churches, his building of numerous monasteries, and his care for the poor and the sick, demonstrated through his founding of almshouses, hospitals, and schools. Ravanica monastery – King’s Lazar legacy During his reign, the holy Lazar pondered his duty and considered, “Is there anything greater for an earthly ruler than to do what is pleasing to God?”