1234–1243.

Stefan Vladislav

Ktitor of Mileševa and guardian of the relics of Saint Sava

The return of the Saint

King Stefan Vladislav, the second son of Stefan the First-Crowned, came to the throne in 1234. His reign was marked by reliance on Bulgaria, where his wife Belosava came from. However, his greatest work was not political but spiritual.

After Saint Sava died in Trnovo (Bulgaria), King Vladislav did everything to bring his body back to the homeland. He went in person to his father-in-law, the Bulgarian Tsar Asen, and succeeded in obtaining the relics of his uncle. The transfer of the relics to Serbia is regarded as one of the most important events in Serbian medieval history.

"I did not come to seek either gold or cities, but the body of my uncle Sava, to lay it in his and my homeland."

Mileševa

He laid the relics of Saint Sava in his own endowment, Mileševa Monastery, which he had built while still a prince. Although he later lost the throne to his brother Uroš I, Vladislav remained revered among the people as the ktitor of one of the most beautiful Serbian shrines.