Academic literature on the topic 'Brother Hospitallers of St'

AbstractIn 1625 the Monastery of St. John's in Haarlem, which housed the local Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (Hospitallers), was dissolved. The property, including a large collection of paintings, passed to the City of Haarlem, which claimed all the monasteries in the district of Haarlen as compensation for damage sustairted during the siege and rebellion against Spain. In the monastery's archives, now in the Haarlem Municipal Archives, memorial panels are menizoned fourteen times. Nine of thern occur in three inventories of 1573, one in a testament of 1574 and the rest in the Commander's accounts of 1572, 1573 and 1574. In the case of six of the thirteen items there is no description of the representation at all; one is simply said to depict a number of persons. Four of the six other items are Passion representations. Like The Last Judgment, such themes are in keeping with the functiort of a memorial panel. The description of one epitaph as 'in laudem artis musiccs' is not sufficiently clear to give an idea of the representation. More information is available as to the patrons or commemorated persons. All of them seem to have been members of the Order of St. John: four panels were memorials to commanders, three to ordinary hospitallers and one painting commemorated the founder of the monastery. All were priests. Nothing in the archives suggests that the church contained memorials to non-members of the order. This must nonetheless have been the case: a 'Liber- memoriarum' compiled in 1570 indicates that numerous memorial services were held for the laity, many of whom apparently chose St. John's as their last resting-place. It is thus highly likely that memorials for these worshippers were placed in the church. A 1572 inventory of St. John's Monastery makes no mention of memorial panels, probably because the contents of the church were not listed. After the monastery had been destroyed during the siege of Haarlem, three inventories were drawn up: one of the ruined monastery, one of the items - mainly paintings which were moved to Utrecht, and one of the property taken to the Sint Adriaansdoelen, the temporary home of the order after the destruction of the monastery. Only in these three inventories are epitaphs mentioned. The inventories of 1580 and 1606 were drawn up by order of the City, the claimant to the mortastery's propery. They make no mention of private possessions, not even those of the members of the Order. The 1625 inventory, drawn up after the death of the last inmate, only mentiorts the painting that was bought by the convent to be placed on the grave of its founder. Epitaphs which were not orderend by the convent were probably regarded as private property, and passed to the heirs prior to 1625. Exact dates cannot be ascertained. The author has identified two epitaphs and a painting coming from St. John's. It is not clear whether the small painting of Mary, her cousin Elizabeth and Commander Jan Willem Jansz. (1484-1514) (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Weimar) is (part of) an epitaph or a devotional painting (ill. 2). The 1572 inventory mentions a picture of Jan Willem. It is not described, but the painting in Weimar is a likely candidate because of its small size (72 x 50). The 1573 inventory of the property in the Adriaansdoelen lists a wing of the epitaph of 'Heer Jan', but again, the representation is not described. The 17thcentury genealogist Opt Straeten van der Moelen described the four family coats of arms on the painting, but said nothing about the representation or where he saw it. It was possible to identify the Hospitaller in the Weimar work because of the armorial shield hanging on a tree behind the kneeling figure. The arms correspond with what Opt Straeten van der Moelen described as the arms of the Hospitaller's father, and with a wax impression of Jan Willem Jansz.'s arms (ill. 1) on a document of 1494, now in the Haarlem Municipal Archive. The date and painter of the picture are not known. In the series of portraits of the Commanders of St. John's Monastery in Haarlem (Frans Hals Museum) is a second portrait of Jan Willem. In this, the seventeenth portrait in the series (ill. 3), he is grey-haired, in contrast to the Weimar painting, in which he is depicted with black hair. Jan Willem Jansz. was born in about 1450. In 1484 he was elected Commander of the order, a function which he held until his death in 1514. The Bowes Museum, Durham, owns a triptych of an Entombment (ills. 4 and 5). On the middle panel is a kneeling Knight Hospitaller; on each of the side panels are four persons, arranged in pairs. One of them, on the right wing, is another member of the Order. Coats of arms can be seen on the prie-dieu's behind which three of the four couples kneel, and on the back of the panels (ill. 6). Comparison of these arms with the one on the seal of Philips van Hogesteyn, Commander of the Order frorn 1571 to 1574, suggests that this is his epitaph (ill. 7). The memorial panel is mentioned in the 1573 inventory of property in the Adriaansdoelen. In 1570, before becoming prior of the monastery, Philips had a 'Liber memoriarum' compiled which contained the names of his grandparents and parents. His grandmother came from the Van Arkel family, whose arms bore two opposing embattled bars. This coal of arms facilitated identification of the couples on the left wing. The grandparents are kneeling behind the last prie-dieu - the Van Arkel arms are on the heraldic left of the shield. In front of them are Philips van Hogesteyn's parents. It is harder to establish the identity of the people on the right wing, but the couple kneeling behind the prie-dieu are very likely Philips' brother and sister-in-law. The woman behind them could be his sister. The brother and sister are mentioned in his will, which he made in 1568. However, it is not clear who the Hospitaller on this panel is. It could be an unknown member of the family, but it is also possible that Philips van Hogesteyn was depicted in the triplych twice, first simply as a member of the family on one wing and again, later on in life, on the middle panel as the most important patron. Besides this painted epitaph, an elegy on Philips van Hogesteyn, written bij Cornelys Schonaeus, headmaster of the Latin school in Haarlem, has been preserved. This poem only mentions the effigy of the late Philips in front of the 'worthy reader' - not a word about his family. The 1572 inventory lists two separate portraits of Philips. It is not known where he was buried, nor has it been possible to establish whether his epitaph, with or without the elegy, or a portrait plus an elegy were ever placed on his grave. The painter is not mentioned by name anywhere either. Philips van Hogesteyn took holy orders in 1553. Assuming that he was 17 years old when he joined the Order of St. John, he would have entered the monastery in 1544. If this assumption is correct and he is portrayed twice on the triplych, it could have been painted any time from 1544 on. The reason for the commission must remain unanswered. In the Catharijneconvent Museum in Utrechl is a triptych with a Crucifixion. On the left wing is a kneeling man in a chasuble and stole, and on the right wing a Hospitaller (ill. 8). Today the outsides of the panels are empty. In the catalogue of an exhibition of North-Netherlandish painting and sculpture before 1575, held in 1913, however, the vestiges of the armorial shields -- four on each panel - are mentioned. Apparently this is an epitaph for a member of the Oem van Wijngaarden family, brought to Utrecht in 1573. The Hospitaller is Tieleman Oem van Wijngaarden, who was living in St. John's Monastery in Haarlem at the beginning of the 16th century and died in 1518 person on the right-hand panel appears to be Dirk van Raaphorst -- also known as Dirk van Noordwijk. The Utrecht triptych is identified here as the Van Wijngaarden epitaph from St. John's Monastery despite the fact that the description of shield I on the right-hand panel does not point towards the Oem van Wijngaarden family. Thanks to the fourth shield on the same panel, still in fairly good condition in 1913, it was possible, by dint of invenstigating Tieleman's family, to establish him as the person portrayed on the right-hand panel (see Appendix II). Dirk van Raaphorst of Noordwijk was a canon of St. Pancras' Church in Leiden. He probably owed the name 'van Raaphorst of Noordwijk' to the fact that he was called after his maternal grandfather. For the same reason, the armorial shields on the back of the lefthand panel are not arranged in the usual manner but inverted, i being the mother's arms, II the father's (see also Appendix III). Dirk van Noordwijk was a nephew of Tieleman Oem van Wijngaarden (see Appendix IV). He died in 1502. In 15 18 Tieleman was buried in the same grave in the church of St. John's Monastery. This memorial panel, too, prompts several questions. It is not clear why distant relatives, whose deaths moreover were sixteen years apart, were commemorated on the same panel. Neither the painter nor the dale of the triptych is known. However, perhaps the source of Tieleman's portrait can be established (fig.9). The features in this portrait bear a marked resemblance to those in the portrait of the Hospitaller on the Van Wijngaarden epitaph in Utrecht. Despite publications on individual North-Netherlandish memorial panels, no scholarly examination of the total number of known pieces has yet been initiated. The author is preparing such an examination, which may yield more insight into the customs pertaining to the corramemoration of the dead and the place accupied by memorial panels.

On 20 November 1210, before a large crowd of spectators which had flocked to the market-place of Les Champeaux outside the Saint-Honoré Gate in Paris, the heretical Amalricians were burnt at the stake. Fire that day consumed ten men, of whom nine were certainly laicised priests, deacons and sub-deacons. Six days earlier, at the nearby church of St Honorius, they had been stripped of their clerical status and handed over for execution to the royal officials of the rex chrislianissimus, Philip Augustus. Indeed, from the time some three months beforehand that Master Ralph of Namur, discoverer of their existence and pseudo-convert to their beliefs, was instructed by his clerical superiors to infiltrate the sect – an act of ecclesiastical espionage which eventually delivered the Amalricians to the flames – a highly placed royal counsellor, the Hospitaller Brother Guerin, had been consulted immediately. For this was a matter of urgency, and not just to the Church.

In recent years, the set of drawings by Johann Lucas Kracker (1719–1779) has been enlarged with 12 pieces. The sheets preserved in the museum of Debrecen include a sketch showing the baptism of Christ in the Jordan. It is the first variant of the high altar of the Premonstratensian abbey in Jasov. Two exquisite painted oil sketches for the enormous picture of the high altar signed in 1762 (Košice / Jasov, Bratislava, Slovak National Gallery) have long been known. The drawing is a far simpler composition with few figures, reminiscently of Daniel Gran's painting for the high altar of Vienna's church of the Brothers Hospitallers (1736). The painted sketches were extended with genre figures from the motivic set of Paul Troger (1698–1762) and with the large angel holding a drapery behind Jesus. Kracker painted another two reduced versions on the basis of the sketches: for a side altar in the remonstratensian church in Nová Říše and a small mural for the church of Rancířov (1763). To the picture of the high altar in Jasov a monumental fresco cycle belongs narrating the legend of John the Baptist; their epic character suggests the inspiration of the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke, while the drawn sketch was presumably inspired by St John's Gospel. The commission was given by abbot Andreas Sauberer (1700–1779).

The Hospitallers of St. John and the female orders in Silesia in the Middle Ages The networks of the houses of the Hospitallers and of the female monastic orders in Silesia were similar (about 14 houses of the Hospitallers and 13 monasteries of nuns). There were many differences between these groups of clergy, too. The monasteries of nuns belong to various orders (e.g., Benedictines, Cistercian Nuns, Poor Clares, Dominican sisters, Sisters of St. Mary Magdalene, and the Canons of St. Augustine). Moreover, some houses of Beguines were active in medieval Silesia, too. The number of nuns is estimated to have been about 600, as opposed to the number of Hospitallers, which is estimated to have been about 200. The nuns were enclosed, while the Hospitallers were active in the pastoral care. The relations betwee both groups were not very intense. The priests from the Order of St. John were the chaplains and confessors of the nuns, or they coudl serve as the protectors of the property of the female monesteries (e.g., the Benedictines in Strzegom and the Beguines in Głubczyce). The Hospitallers, in return, asked the nuns for intercessory prayers in the time of the crisises, especially on the Isle of Rhodes. They also had contacts with the individual nuns, who were in some cases their relatives or neighbors. These relations were a sign of the absorption the Order of St. John by the local society.

Abstract Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and his brother Michael (1737-1806) were the most popular composers in eighteenth-century Bohemia, and their compositions have been preserved in collections in Prague, among other places. The study deals with Haydniana in the collection of Ondřej Horník (1864-1917) kept at the National Museum - Czech Museum of Music and with sacred works in particular. It notes the performances of compositions by both Haydn brothers given by the Brothers Hospitallers in Kuks, gives concrete examples of changes to instrumentation depending on changing tastes during the period, and touches on cases of doubtful authorship and practical questions concerning the manufacturing and distribution of paper. Among other things, it affirms the importance of Ondřej Horník's activity as a collector.

To assess the interaction between the military orders and women of the nobility in the Crusader states neither the narrative sources’ scattered anecdotes nor the normative texts’ stipulations pertaining to women are particularly useful or representative. Focusing on the kingdom of Jerusalem and, to a lesser extent, the principality of Antioch and the county of Tripoli in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this article considers examples from the charter evidence to appreciate the impact of queens, princesses, countesses, and noble ladies on the history of Templars, Hospitallers, and Teutonic Knights. The first part highlights the significance of consent-giving; the second part takes a closer look at activities where ladies functioned as primary agents, namely, as issuers of charters; and the third part presents a case study of Lady Juliana of Caesarea ‒ a benefactress of both Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries ‒ whose husbands (despite their dominus/“lord” titles) only participated in the administration of her lordship iure uxoris (i.e., on the basis of Juliana’s legal title); who became a consoror (i.e., a “fellow sister”) and chose the Hospital of St. John as her final resting place; and whose second husband, Aymar of L’Ayron, later joined the Hospitallers and served as their conventual marshal during the Crusade against Damietta.

The character of Adam Chmielowski St. Brother Albert in the film Our God’s brother directed by Krzysztof Zanussi The film Our God’s Brother, directed by Krzysztof Zanussi in 1997, is the adaptation of Karol Wojtyła’s drama of the same title. Adam Chmielowski, who was later known as St. Brother Albert, is the main character in the film. He lived between 1845 and 1916 in the times of the industrial revolution, which led many people to misery. Brother Albert was an artist and painter by profession. Feeling that he was called by God, he decided to give up painting and he started helping the homeless. In his film, Krzysztof Zanussi shows Brother Albert’s path to holiness and the roots of his heroism. The article consists of five points. The first one focuses on the characteristics and structure of the film. The second one briefly shows the story of Adam Chmielowski’s life. In the third part the play by Karol Wojtyła entitled Our God’s Brother is described. The fourth part shows how Krzysztof Zanussi adapted the play into a film, and it also presents a film portrayal of St. Brother Albert. Finally, the conclusion shows the essence of the main character’s holiness. The film can be divided into two parts. In the first one Adam Chmielowski discerns his vocation. In the second one, after his decision to serve the homeless, his vocation develops and he becomes a friar. His service is based on his trust to the Creator and him following merciful Christ. It leads to the fullness of his humanity, freedom and happiness.

Abstract The Hospital of St James in Andravida, a mixed house of male and female religious in the capital of the Principality of Achaia, has long been known to historians of Frankish Greece, but recent publications allow us to identify the institution as the head of an entire hospitaller order, founded by Prince Geoffrey I of Villehardouin. This helps explain Geoffrey II’s desire to incorporate St James into the military-hospitaller Teutonic Order, initiating a long struggle within and over St James that involved the papacy and that, understandably, has not been examined closely until now. The saga ended under Prince William II with the incorporation of St James into the Templar Order instead, although with the dissolution of the latter St James came into the hands of the Hospitallers. This paper tells the history of this newly discovered Order of St James from 1209/1210 until its absorption into the Templars in 1246.

The following article focuses on the story “How St. Francis Tamed the very Fierce Wolf of Gubbio” from the miracle collection“The Little Flowers of St. Francis,” specifically on the cultural value of the wolf in the hagiographic tradition. While the wolf in general represents the social outcast and antagonist, the wolf of Gubbio expands on this role into a reflection of social grievances presented in the city of Gubbio. Saint Francis’s biographical details, imminent in the “Legenda Aurea,” set the stage for a psychoanalytical doubling between the wolf, the saint, and the people of Gubbio. This mutual reflection follows from their economically similar lifestyle with the wolf as a destitute outcast and Saint Francis as a mendicant monk. It is directly instigated in the significant instance when Saint Francis calls the ferocious wolf ‘brother.’ Their common parentage invokes the religiousGotteskindschaft and an equilibrium of social standing. Saint Francis identifies with the wolf, and, along this line of compassion and caritas, he creates a peace treaty between the wolf and the citizens of Gubbio. This article examines how this peace also depends on the maintenance of individual freedom.

La Orden Militar de San Juan envió grandes cantidades de dinero desde España hasta el Mediterráneo Oriental durante la Edad Media. No fueron grandes sumas durante los siglos XII y XIII. Sin embargo, aumentaron mucho en los siglos XIV y XV. Los hospitalarios aragoneses, catalanes y navarros fueron los que más dinero pagaban. En cambio, los hospitalarios castellanos y portugueses dieron menos. La Orden de San Juan envió no sólo dinero sino también caballos, trigo y armas. Los reyes españoles a veces no permitieron que los hospitalarios enviaran las transferencias desde la Península Ibérica al Oriente Latino.The Military Order of Saint John sent large amounts of money from Spain to the Eastern Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. They did not amount to large sums during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. However, they increased greatly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Aragonese, Catalonian and Navarrese Hospitallers were the ones that paid the most money. In contrast, the Castilian and Portuguese Hospitallers gave less. The Order of St. John sent not only money but also horses, wheat and arms.

L’ordre du Temple et celui de l’Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem se sont implantés dans les diocèses de Cahors, de Rodez et d’Albi dès la première moitié du XIIe siècle. Leur installation résulte d’une politique volontariste d’insertion locale et du développement de rapports étroits noués avec les élites laïques et religieuses méridionales, largement réceptives à la nouvelle spiritualité promue au sein du monachisme militaire. Les Templiers et les Hospitaliers ont ainsi fondé un réseau de commanderies rurales et urbaines. La toile tissée révèle une conception propre de l’espace au sein de ces trois diocèses et témoigne d’une pratique particulière de ces territoires par les frères des ordres militaires. À l’image de leur propositum vitae, la domus, lieu de vie de ces communautés religieuses, mêle différents espaces et différentes fonctions, dont la traduction matérielle emprunte autant au vocabulaire architectural religieux que castral. Ces édifices qui évoluent tout au long du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle en même temps que les communautés régulières qu’ils abritent, participent, d’une certaine façon, de la construction identitaire du monachisme militaire
The order of the Temple and that of the Hospital of St. Jean of Jerusalem were established in the French dioceses of Cahors, Rodez and Albi in the first half of the twelfth century. Their foundation resulted from a conscious policy to integrate into the local community and to develop close relationships with lay and religious elites in southern France, who were considerably receptive to the new form of spirituality promoted by military monasticism. The Templars and the Hospitalers thus founded a network of rural and urban commanderies. This network reveals a particular conceptualization of space within these three dioceses and evidences practices specific to these territories by the brothers of the military orders. As a reflection of their propositum vitae, the domus, the focal point of these religious communities’ daily life, blends together different kinds of spaces and different functions, whose material objects were named borrowing terms both from religious architecture as well as castra. These buildings, which evolved throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries along with the regular communities they housed, participated in the construction of the identity of military monasticism

L’ordre du Temple et celui de l’Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem se sont implantés dans les diocèses de Cahors, de Rodez et d’Albi dès la première moitié du XIIe siècle. Leur installation résulte d’une politique volontariste d’insertion locale et du développement de rapports étroits noués avec les élites laïques et religieuses méridionales, largement réceptives à la nouvelle spiritualité promue au sein du monachisme militaire. Les Templiers et les Hospitaliers ont ainsi fondé un réseau de commanderies rurales et urbaines. La toile tissée révèle une conception propre de l’espace au sein de ces trois diocèses et témoigne d’une pratique particulière de ces territoires par les frères des ordres militaires. À l’image de leur propositum vitae, la domus, lieu de vie de ces communautés religieuses, mêle différents espaces et différentes fonctions, dont la traduction matérielle emprunte autant au vocabulaire architectural religieux que castral. Ces édifices qui évoluent tout au long du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle en même temps que les communautés régulières qu’ils abritent, participent, d’une certaine façon, de la construction identitaire du monachisme militaire
The order of the Temple and that of the Hospital of St. Jean of Jerusalem were established in the French dioceses of Cahors, Rodez and Albi in the first half of the twelfth century. Their foundation resulted from a conscious policy to integrate into the local community and to develop close relationships with lay and religious elites in southern France, who were considerably receptive to the new form of spirituality promoted by military monasticism. The Templars and the Hospitalers thus founded a network of rural and urban commanderies. This network reveals a particular conceptualization of space within these three dioceses and evidences practices specific to these territories by the brothers of the military orders. As a reflection of their propositum vitae, the domus, the focal point of these religious communities’ daily life, blends together different kinds of spaces and different functions, whose material objects were named borrowing terms both from religious architecture as well as castra. These buildings, which evolved throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries along with the regular communities they housed, participated in the construction of the identity of military monasticism

Medieval Mural Paintings in Southwest Bohemia (Districts Klatovy, Prachatice, Strakonice) ABSTRACT The thesis focuses on medieval mural paintings preserved in the forty five monuments in the region of southwest Bohemia, i.e. in the three main districts: Klatovy, Prachatice and Strakonice. The core of the thesis is an extensive catologue of the paintings covering the period from the 13th to the 16th centuries which represents first comprehensive treatment of the matter of the region in question. The main focus of the thesis is description of the paintings, their art historical evaluation and complex reconsideration of the literature to the subject including revision of the older proposals. In addition, an introduction of so far neglected, wrongly interpreted and newly discovered paintings contribute to the wide art-historical discussion. Keywords Gothic art, mural paintings, church, castle, chapel, southwest Bohemia, Prácheň region, donor, Bavors of Strakonice, Švihovský of Rýzmberk, Rosenbergs, Knights Hospitallers of St John, Knights of St. John Commendam in Strakonice

The analysis of the two versions of the life of Pope Sergius II (844-847) published by Louis Duchesne in his edition of the Liber pontificalis aims at identifying and discussing the tools developed by the Lateran to illustrate the relationship between the Apostolic See and Carolingian power at the time of the Emperor Lothair. I will first present the two versions of the life of Sergius and their circulation, then highlight the rhetorical strategies employed by the author to diminish the political significance of Louis II’s journey to Rome (844). Secondly, I will refer to the second part of the so-called Farnesianus version of the life of Sergius II. In this particular section, the author, before the incomplete report of the Saracen raid on the mouth of the Tiber and the sack of St. Peter's Basilica (846), critically describes the pontificate of Sergius II, dominated by the negative figure of the pontiff's brother, Benedict, who imposed his tyranny over Rome and its territory on behalf of the emperor (most likely as a missus on the imperial side). In this regard, it is interesting to evaluate which are the concealed arguments introduced here to represent the alleged effects of the application of the Constitutio Romana (824) on the socio-political structures of the city and on the history of the Roman Church, to offer a hypothesis on the context of the composition of this version of the life of Sergius II. In particular, I will dwell on the denouncing of the simoniacal heresy, shown to be have been triumphant during the pontificate of Sergius II, as sign of the re-emergence in Rome of a theme particularly strongly felt among the Carolingian reformers, and one which can perhaps be most associated with the pontificate of Sergius’ successor Leo IV (847-855).

Camp Fire Yarn.—No. 23 Be Prepared for Accidents The Knights Hospitallers of St John—Boy Heroes and Girl Heroines—Life-Saving Medals. Hints to Instructors The subjects in this chapter should not only be explained to the scouts, but should also, wherever possible, be demonstrated practically, and should...

Abstract It is not uncommon to claim Makrina, the eldest child of Basil and Emmelia, whose other children included Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, as the fourth Cappadocian; she seems to hide in the shadow of her more famous brothers. Nevertheless, it seems that Makrina had a decisive influence on her brother Basil, guiding him to the monastic life, and initiating, with her widowed mother, a form of ‘house-monasticism’, though Basil never mentions her. We know of her from epigraphs by Gregory of Nazianzus and two treatises by Gregory of Nyssa, his vita of his sister, and the Dialogue on the Soul and the Resurrection—which recounts their discussion as she lay dying. Gregory calls her didaskalos, teacher, but there is debate as to whether what Gregory presents as her teaching does not simply represent Gregory’s own views. An attempt is made to discern what is truly Makrina’s.

Abstract To the beloved in the Lord and devout sister, Hildegard, by the grace of God, mistress of the community at St. Rupert, brother Eberhard, abbot (in name only) of St. Anastasius, greetings and prayers. Glory be to God, because you are “the good odour of Christ” [II Cor 2.15] both to your people and to ours. The great name of Christ is blessed, praised, and sanctified in you. Indeed, you glorify and bear Christ in your body [cf I Cor 6.20], worthily making yourself worthy of the calling to which you have been called [cf. Eph 4.1], And by the grace granted to you in the Lord’s house, you show yourself to all as a “vessel unto honour” [Rom 9.21].

In this paper, through a multidisciplinary approach and analysis of available written material and material remains, we tried to shed light on the period of King Milutin's rule in the Kruševac area, laying the foundations for some future comprehensive research. According to the Žitije kralja Milutina (1324) by Archbishop Danilo II, this Serbian ruler stayed in the Kruševac area during a meeting with his brother King Dragutin in Mačkovac in the župa of Rasina, before the decisive attack on the state of Drman and Kudelin, most likely in the first half of 1292. Mačkovac can be reliably identified with today's village of the same name, about 8 km west of Kruševac. Based on the favorable geographical position not far from the crossroads of important medieval roads, it can be assumed that this settlement, before the rise of Kruševac in the second half of the 14th century, most likely enjoyed the status of a trg (mercatum, marketplace). At this time, the župa of Rasina was organized as a separate država (lord state) within Milutin's kingdom. Archaeological finds from the last decades of the 13th and the first decades of the 14th century are scarce, and we could talk only about two specimens of silver coins of King Milutin, accidentally found in the area of the villages of Laćisled and Mačkovac. The specimen from Laćisled, which was in secondary use as part of the jewelry, belongs to type 3.1, i.e. the dinar with the flag - de bandera, minted in Brskovo between 1282 and around 1310. The most significant written testimonies from the period of King Milutin's reign are two tombstone inscriptions. The first was carved on a massive river pebble, which today lies on the property of the Gajić family in the village of Zdravinje near Kruševac. It was performed in the Cyrillic alphabet in the Old Serbian language. He testified about the death of Marija Bogoslava (Bogoslav's wife), who died on June 8, 1292. In addition to Marija, the inscription also mentions her three sons, Radoslav, Radič and Vladel (Vladelj). This aristocratic family bore the family name or surname Poljak, from which the toponym Poljaci was derived, i.e. the name of their ancestral village in the neighborhood of Zdravinje. The second tombstone, discovered in 1967, was installed as an spolia in the bell tower of the church of St. Stephen in Kruševac (1377–1378). An inscription engraved on it speaks of the death of Vlkota, Medoš's son, who died between September 1, 1300 and August 31, 1301. It is characterized by East Slavic linguistic features, a consistent distinction between soft and hard semivowel (rabþ, vþ, sŠÿ1nþ, Vlýkota), as well as the use of the form oumér{iŠhþ1, in which é is used as a substitute for soft semivowel ý, which is attested in the tombstone inscription of the noblewoman Stanislava from the village of Gradec near Vidin (14th century), as well as in the fresco inscription between the figures of two deceased lords on the southern part of the western wall of the nave in the church of St. Nicholas in Staničenje near Pirot (1331–1332). Folk tradition links King Milutin to the origin of the toponym Milutovac near Trstenik, which is derived from the anthroponym Milutin, most probably according to the name of the lord or nobleman who owned this village during the late Middle Ages. According to local legend, King Milutin, as the greatest endower of Nemanjić family, was also the founder of the church of St. John the Baptist in Orašje near Varvarin. The original appearance and oldest past of this church, due to the absence of archaeological research and conservation research, as well as the lack of written sources, are not known to us. The existence of a medieval necropolis around its walls, dated on the basis of the appearance of tombstones in 14th and 15th century, and the mention of the priest Jovan in the Ottoman defter from 1476 indirectly indicate that this modest single-nave sacral building could have been erected as an endowment of some local lord during the period of Serbian independence before 1459, and could not be directly related to King Milutin. We hope that this article will draw the attention of the scientific public to the necessity of further multidisciplinary research of the medieval past of the Kruševac region, including the reign of King Stefan Uroš II Milutin, as one of the most famous Serbian medieval rulers.