International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Valentina Živković
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbia; 
[e-mail]
The Vow by Ivan Crnojević to the Virgin Mary 
in Loreto in the Shadow of Turkish Conquests
The paper will analyze the vow made by Ivan Crnojević to the Virgin Mary in the Italian pilgrim-
age sanctuary of 
Santa Casa
in Loreto to erect a temple in her honor in Cetinje if he should return 
safely to the homeland, which he fled due to Turkish conquests. Ivan imparted his vow in the founding 
charter of the Virgin Mary monastery in Cetinje in 1485. On the way towards Loreto, Crnojević took 
the usual migration route from the Balkans to Ancona and the trade center of Recanati. There were 

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confraternite degli schiavoni
already in that region. In order to understand the wider context of this 
phenomenon, it is of the utmost importance to separate and identify the Orthodox elements in the 
culture, spirituality and art which the 
Schiavoni 
brought into Italy from Serbian areas. A special accent 
will be placed on the Loreto cult’s religious significance within the 
resistenza antiturca 
in light of the 
historical circumstances of Ivan’s founding activities and the transposing of the seat of the Metropoli-
tanate of Zeta. Conducting arduous diplomatic, political and military battles with the Turks as well as 
Venice, Crnojević managed to attain in Cetinje a short-lived rendering of the Orthodox spiritual seat.
The cult of the house at Nazareth in which key events took place from the lives of the Madonna 
and Christ was from its very start marked by a strong anti-Islamic character. According to legend, just 
before the final expulsion of the Crusaders from the Holy Land, angels conveyed the house first to Istria 
(Trsat, near Rijeka) and then to Italy. From the end of the 15
th
and especially the 16
th
century, a singular 
religiosity of 
Our Lady of Loreto
proliferated, with a variety of manifestations. Among them was also 
the endeavor to build a chapel and churches according to the Loreto prototype. Based on the attempt to 
reconstruct Ivan’s church, elements which may well permit the assumption of a likely wider symbolic 
significance and impact of the Loreto prototype can be recognized. However, that which undoubtedly 
beholds the strength of the Loreto cult which in hard times underlay the division of the confessions 
were the words of Ivan Crnojević in the founding charter of the Virgin Mary monastery in Cetinje.