Venerable Mother Angelina, Despotess of Serbia | |
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Fresco in Krušedol depicting Angelina
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Saint, Venerable | |
Born | 15th century Berat (present day Albania) |
Died | Beginning of the 16th century Krušedol monastery (present day Serbia) |
Venerated in | Serbian Orthodox Church |
Major shrine | Krušedol monastery |
Feast | July 30 or December 10 |
Angelina Branković (Serbian Cyrillic: Ангелина Бранковић; Albanian: Angjelina Arianiti ca. 1440–1520), née Arianiti, was the despotess consort of Serbian Despot Stefan Branković (r. 1458—1459), and a daughter of Albanian nobleman Gjergj Arianiti. For her pious life she was proclaimed a saint and venerated as such by the Serbian Orthodox Church as Venerable Mother Angelina (Serbian: Преподобна мати Ангелина).
Angelina was the sixth daughter of Albanian nobleman Gjergj Arianiti (1383–1462). She married Serbian ruler Stefan Branković (r. 1458–59), son of the former Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković (r. 1427—1456). Her sister Donika married Skanderbeg.
The couple fled to Albania and then to Italy.
In 1485, at the death of her husband, Angelina went to the Kingdom of Hungary, where her son, George, had become a titular despot in exile of the Serbian Despotate. The territory of the Despotate had been under the Ottoman Empire since its collapse in 1459. Later Angelina retired in the Krušedol monastery, in the Fruška Gora mountain of Syrmia, where she died in the beginning of the 16th century.
Angelina and Stefan were married from 1461 until his death in 1476. They had children: