International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Bojan Miljković
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Byzantine Studies, Belgrade, Serbia; 
[e-mail]
Two Oldest Inscriptions of Hilandar Monastery
Both inscriptions are in the monastery’s katholikon. The older is on the door marble frame on 
the south façade of the inner narthex.
+ Κ(ύρι)ε βοήθη τῶν δομ(ητόρ)ων Μιχαὴλ, ... + Βαρνάβα[ς] ... δοῦλ(ος) Χ(ριστο)ῦ
+ Lord, help builders Michael ... + Barnabas ... Christ’s servant
This unique inscription in the Byzantine world – according to its position and material in 
which it is inscribed – contained the names of builders and stonecutters, Greek masters, who built 
and decorated the new Hilandar katholikon, upon the wish of Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin. 
The scribe Barnabas could be the master-builder, as he left a trace about himself at the end of the 
inscription. Of his collaborators, only Michael is known by name. The time of their work in Hilandar 
can be rather accurately established. For the church decoration, these masters also used parts of the 
marble decoration which was not the work of their hands. Except of the older spolia, those are eight 
consoles with human and animal heads, three of which are embedded in the western portal of the 
church. The stylistic analogies categorically show that these pieces were made by carvers who were 
at the same time decorating one monastery katholikon in Serbia – the St Stephen church in Banjska, 
near Zvečan. The construction of this church may be dated with certainty to the period between 
1312 and 1316. It was led by the Bishop of Banjska Daniil, former hegoumenos of Hilandar – the 
cleric in whom the ktetor Stefan Uroš II Milutin placed the greatest trust. Upon his return, Daniil 
brought to Hilandar from Banjska the eight stone consoles that would adorn the western parts of 
the church which was – around 1315, also in the final phase of construction.
The second inscription is in the arcosolium that was subsequently added at the level of parapet 
panels on the inner side of the bifora on the northern wall of the old narthex. It is written in white 
letters on the green background, in three rows, behind Christ-child at the bosom of Virgin Mary.
pr(y)stavI se rabq bo/Ii rypo[q dMKq iliris%ki& vq lyt(o) pϡ#9
God’s servant Repoš, doux of Illyria, reposed in 6939
Judging by the sequence in which John Castriot’s sons are mentioned – in his charter of 1425/6 
whereby he bestowed upon the Hilandar monastery the villages of Radostuše and Trebište northeast 
to Debar, Repoš was the second-born son of this Albanian nobleman, who ruled the area in the 
basin of the Mat river, north and east to Krujë, including the neighbouring Debar and the environs. 
Awaiting a conflict with the Turks, over the following two years John Castriot aimed to ensure a safe 
refuge for himself and his family. Before 17 August 1428, with the agreement of the hegoumenos 
and hieromonachos Athanasios and the entire Hilandar brethren, he bought four adelphata in St 
George’s pyrgos above the monastery for sixty florins, ensuring the right to lifelong stay for himself 
and his three sons – Repoš, Konstantin and Djuradj. However, John Castriot retained a part of his 
old territories as a Christian sipahi of the sultan in 1431. Under such circumstances, probably at the 
beginning of the same year, Repoš went to Mount Athos, where he soon after died.

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The Hilandar brethren buried him as the son of the reputable monastery benefactor in the inner 
narthex and adorned his tomb with frescoes. Although, like his father, he did not have any title during 
his life, in both Hilandar documents, John and his sons are simply called gospodinq, Repoš was in the 
inscription posthumously called duke (Greek: δούξ). The ordering person left an incidental testimony 
to his erudition in the following word which denotes the ethnicity of the deceased. The Albanians were 
Illyrians (Ἰλλυριοί) for George Pachymeres at the beginning of the 14
th
century, and for the most of the 
later Byzantine scholars, historians, philologists and writers, such as Thomas Magistros, Nikephoros 
Gregoras or Joseph Kalothetos, including contemporary chroniclers and men of letters, such as the 
autokrator Manuel II Palaiologos or Kritoboulos of Imbros.