Isaija the Monk

Isaija the Monk (c.1300 – after 1375) was a 14th-century Serbian monk, one of many Serbian monk-scribes in the Middle Ages who translated ancient Greek manuscripts into the Serbian recension of Old Church Slavonic. His major work is the translation of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

As a young boy, Isaija joined the monastic life of the Serbian Orthodox Church affiliated to St. Joachim of Osogovo Monastery on Osogovo Mountain in northern Macedonia, and then to Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece, where he spent the rest of his life. In Hilandar, he worked as a translator and became very respected by Serbian rulers as attested to by anonymous author of The Life of the Monk Isaija, probably written in late 14th century.

Isaija was a very prominent individual during the reign of Stephen Dushan and Lazar of Serbia. He was a monk with an excellent reputation and he also excelled as a writer, translator and diplomat. Between 1353 and 1363 he travelled throughout Serbia; he later served as a Serbian diplomat, and he proved to be a very skilled during the negotiations initiated by Prince Lazar in order to reconcile the Serbian and the Greek Church, which was achieved in 1375.

At the end of his Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite translation, Isaija added an inscription and used a cryptogram to write his name.

Isaija had an anonymous disciple, known only as Isaija's Disciple, who wrote the biography of "Isaija the Monk". No biographical data of this author is extant.

The climate of despair which set in after the Battle of Maritsa in 1371 is expressed in a long personal comment, written by Isaija the Monk. This literary comment is appended to Isaija's translation of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite into Old Serbian which, he says, he had started "in happy times," but had finished it after the battle, "when Ishmelites spread over the entire land as birds in the air, slaying some of the Christians, sending others into slavery.... And the land became deprived of all that is good, people, beast, fruit of all kind. There was no prince, nor leader or teacher among people, nobody to save them.... And truly were the living envying the dead."

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