SIMEON NEMANJA. - Born around 1114 at Ribnica (today Podgorica in Montenegro), where his father had taken refuge from Rascia following an uprising, he was baptized there with the name Stephen Nemanja, according to the Latin rite, but once he returned to Rascia he was rebaptized according to the Greek rite by the local bishop.
Having become in 1172 supreme count (veliki čupan) of Rascia, he made it the nucleus of the future Serbian State, beginning from there the territorial expansion, which was continued until 1371 by his successors, all bearing the name Stephen. But over the Serbs the religious influence of Byzantine "orthodoxy" was stronger than that of the Latin West; therefore their expansion toward the West was constantly accompanied by the spread of "orthodoxy." However, under the Nemanja dynasty relations with Rome continued, particularly intense in Zeta, where Catholic influence was then powerful. Thus Pope Clement III addressed (25 Nov. 1189) a letter "Dilectis filius, nobilibus viris Megajupano, Strascimiro et Miroslavo," brothers of Stephen, in which he recommended the archbishop of Ragusa Bernardo, who had jurisdiction over the territories of these two princes and over that of Rascia. Nemanja then sent gifts to the basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome and of St. Nicholas in Bari, and was always hostile to the sect of the Bogomils, doing everything to extirpate it from Serbia. On 25 March 1195 Nemanja abdicated the throne, became a monk with the name of S. and lived in various monasteries of Serbia, some of which were founded by him and among them the famous monastery of Studenica, still existing. In 1197 he went to Mount Athos where his son Sabba was already staying, and founded the monastery of Hilandar, which later became the center of Serbian religious culture, where S. N. died on 13 Feb. 1200.
The Serbian Church celebrates him as a saint on 13 Feb., while his relics were later transferred from Hilandar to Studenica.
Bibliography5 works
Filippo Lukas