Summary
Marjanovic Dragoljub, Athonite Samaria in the life of King Milutin by the Archbishop Danilo II. A Contribution to the understanding of Hierotopy and Toponomastics of the Holy Mount Athos in his Work.
The Life of Holy King Milutin by the Archbishop Danilo II is the most elaborate hagiography of Stefan Uroš II Milutin, who was the King of the Serbian medieval state from 1282 to 1321. At the end of the Life Danilo II depicts an image of the King Milutin as a holy ktetor of many religious foundations such as churches, monasteries and even small monastic - hesychastic cells and different objects which had the role of protecting large monastic communities in the Holy Mount Athos, and the Serbian monastery Chilandar in particular. Thus Danilo II narrates that at one time the Chilandar hegumenos with his brotherhood petitioned King Milutin to defend the monastery from many pirate raids from which the monastic foundation of St. Sava and Symeon from the late XII century suffered many hardships. King Milutin then built a large column, a pyrgos, at the sea shore with the church dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord. In description of further events regarding the foundation of the Hrusije pyrgos, Danilo II mentions that the King Milutin built it not far away from the Samaria hill where in the ancient times a city was erected. Te founding of the Hrusije pyrgos is researched thoroughly in contemporary Serbian historiography. However, the occasion of mentioning the Samarija hill near the King Milutin‘s fortifcation was neglected until now. In this paper we investigated the motifs for Danilo II to incorporate this toponym in his narrative and whether its position in this particular story has a deeper message and a purpose to additionally highlight King Milutin‘s mimesis of Christ‘s love towards the human kind. Te term Samaria is an Old Testament term, in this paper we elaborate the Old Testament history of Samaria, its semantics, concluding that already in the Old Testament it had the meaning of an elevated place with particular purpose of being the watching place against the enemies. Tus, the choosing of the place where the defensive fortification was built by King Milutin in order to protect the Chilandar monastery from pirate raids proves to have been justifed since the region was appropriate for observating the sea and timely preparing for eventual pirate raids. The name of the hill - Samaria, further proves that its strategic benefts were known to the Athonite community in its specific Old Testament model. Besides, the Old Testament Samaria is mentioned in the New Testament, in the Gospel according to Luke, where the Story about the Merciful Samaritian narrates about a certain Samaritian who helps a man who has fallen among bandits by tending to his wounds. In a literary level of the story about the establishment of the Hrusije pyrgos, Danilo II utilized the toponym Samaria in the vicinity in order to include a more complex ideas in his narrative, linking the ktetor - King Milutin to the Good Samaritian who is himself a personification of Christ, and the Serbian holy King who completely fulfils the Gospels in helping the Chilandar hegumenos and his brotherhood to prevail against the sea pirates who were tormenting the monastery.
