Academic literature on the topic 'First Regular Baptist Church'

Throughout the modern period Catholic and Orthodox Christians alike have taken it for granted that forgiveness for sins committed after baptism is obtained first and foremost through confession to a priest and absolution by a priest, the humility of confession plus the power of the sacrament being deemed the most effective remedy for human weakness. Other elements in overcoming sin, such as regular religious observance and the avoidance of the occasions of sin, were not forgotten, but were put in second place. The falling away from sacramental confession in the Catholic Church today is doubtless a complex phenomenon, but one reason for the decline is the widespread perception that this remedy does not work, that a penitential discipline that places so heavy a reliance on the power of priestly absolution, without adequate attention to the other aspects of repentance and forgiveness, is ineffectual. It also represents what is arguably an impoverished and clericalized Catholicism. The aim of this paper is to explore those elements of penitential practice in the early middle ages that belong to a tradition at once richer and more flexible.

The pages of church history reveal that the great variety of Protestant denominations today had their genesis in the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. However, there is a certain strain of Baptist belief, which had its origin in the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States of America in the nineteenth century, which asserts that Baptists did not spring from the Reformation. This view contends that Baptist churches and only Baptist churches have always existed in an unbroken chain of varying names from the first century to the present time. This view is known as Landmarkism. Landmark adherents reject other denominations as true churches, reject the actions of their ministers, and attach to them designations such as societies and organisations rather than churches. Baptist historians today do not espouse such views, however, a surprising number of church members, even among millennials, still hold to such views. This article surveys the origin and spread of such views and provides scholars the means to assess the impact and continuation of Landmark beliefs.

In interwar Romania, the numbers of Baptists grew exponentially among the ethnic majority population in the border regions of Transylvania, Banat, and Bessarabia. In the competition over souls and for cultural space in the newly formed Greater Romania, the Roma became an important minority to win over. In 1930, Petar Mincov visited Chișinău and spurred outreach to the Roma among Romanian Baptists as he had in Bulgaria. It was here and in the cities of Arad and Alba-Iulia that some of the first Romanian Roma converted to the Baptist denomination. The first Roma Baptist (and first Roma neo-Protestant) Church, called Biserica Credinţa (Faith Church), was founded in Arad city around 1931. Confessional newspapers in English, Romanian, and Russian from the interwar period reveal the initiative taken by members of the local Roma community to convert and to start their own church. The article analyses the role of Romanian Baptist leadership in supporting Roma churches and the development of these new faith communities in the borderland regions. Unlike outsider attempts to foster a Roma Baptist community in Bucharest, the Faith Church survived World War II and communist governments, and provides insight into the workings and agency of a marginalized double minority. The article also looks at the current situation of Roma evangelicals in Arad city and how the change in religious affiliation has helped or hindered attempts at inclusion and policy change.

For the first half of the twentieth century, two Baptist pastors “squared off” with one another from the First Baptist Church pulpits of two rival Texas towns. In Dallas, George W. Truett led what would arguably become the flagship church of Southern Baptists. Across the Trinity River in Fort Worth, J. Frank Norris, also known as the “Texas Tornado,” packed auditoriums preaching sensational sermons. Mentoring both men was B. H. Carroll, founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. And like James Dean and Richard Davalos in the movie adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden, the two men feuded with one another, in part over the right to be Carroll’s heir. This article summarizes the rivalry as it played out in the lifelong conflict between J. Frank Norris and George W. Truett, and demonstrates how both the unifying statesman and the sectarian fundamentalist sides of B. H. Carroll are apparent in the struggle.

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007.
Abstract and vita. Includes final project proposal. Description based on Print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-132, 40-45).

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007.
Abstract and vita. Includes final project proposal. Description based on Print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-165).

In 1754 Oliver Hart led a revival among the youth of the Charleston Baptist Church which mirrored the awakenings that had been taking place throughout the colonies since the 1730s. Hart kept a careful record of the revival in his personal diary after the pattern of George Whitefield’s Journals, documenting his own revivalist practices, such as preaching in private homes and counseling those who had fallen into sin. The 1754 Charleston revival involved a number of dramatic conversion experiences and exhibited some of the egalitarian tendencies of the Great Awakening, including Hart’s encouragement of public testimony and exhortation of a enslaved black woman to a group of white girls. This revival is also noteworthy for the conversion of Samuel Stillman, who would go on to become the influential pastor of the First Baptist Church of Boston at the time of the American Revolution. The 1754 Charleston revival shows Hart attempting to walk the line of discerning, moderate revivalism in the context of a dynamic awakening. It also demonstrates that a robust revivalism existed among the Regular Baptists of the South before the more famous Separate Baptists arrived in 1755.

Abstract The Methodist pattern of education for ministry, as was briefly noted earlier, differed considerably from that of the older Nonconformist groups. That difference was rooted in part in the centralized Methodist structure, first in the person of John Wesley and later in the continuing authority of the Conference, as opposed to the independency of the Congregational and Baptist churches. For one thing, Methodists did not establish an institution for ministerial training until 1834. To have done so in the eighteenth century would have meant separating from the Church of England, an action Wesley re fused to take. After his death strong feeling continued among Methodists that they should not be linked with Dissenters, and thus few were inclined to follow the Nonconformists’ lead in the education of ministers. Further, the ministers in question were understood to be “preachers,” that is, supplements to the regular ministry of the Church of England. It was not until Methodists began to perceive themselves as a church (as opposed to a “soci ety” within a larger church) that matters such as ordination and institutional education for ministry became serious questions. The requirement of Conference approval for all proposals for ministerial training also delayed developments in this area.

Pruitt, who regularly attended the First Methodist Church, photographed religious rituals including births, christenings, baptisms, weddings, funerals, and revivals. In the buckle of the Bible Belt, he took pictures of countless church groups, Black and white. He had no reservation about taking pictures of African Americans: “All you had to do was to pay him,” Lula May Williams said in a 1994 interview. She recalled how in 1942, Pruitt photographed her church—the only time Pruitt ever took her picture. She pointed to a panorama on her living room wall. The picture shows a hundred church members in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. This image depicts the installation of a new pastor, Rev. R. M. Prowell, and the officers of the auxiliary groups of Shiloh Missionary Baptist, the oldest Black church in Columbus, founded in 1861. Lula May Williams’s treasuring of the photograph testifies to the power of an image to carry forth the memory of faith and faithfulness. Pruitt took the picture he was paid to take; the subjects of the photograph paid the price he asked and then put on the wall or on a table a framed picture to reinforce their belief in something spiritual, something they considered priceless.

The eighteenth century was an era of religious institution-building, and no figure was more important for the birth of Baptist denominationalism in the South than Oliver Hart. In 1751 Hart drew together the Particular Baptist churches of South Carolina to form the Charleston Association, the second Baptist association in America. Successfully transplanting ideas and models he had witnessed in the Philadelphia Association, Hart led the South’s Baptists to form a minister’s education fund, send missionaries to the western frontier, and formalize the doctrines and church practices that would define the Baptist South for the next 150 years.

During the Civil Rights Movement, many white churches in the South issued closed-door policies that prevented black people from entering their sanctuaries. Many white ministers who attempted to admit African Americans lost their churches. This chapter relates crisis incidents in three Alabama churches, First Presbyterian, Tuscaloosa, First Presbyterian, Tuskegee, and First Baptist, Birmingham; two Baptist churches in Georgia, Tattnell Square in Macon, and Plains Baptist in Plains, three churches in Jackson, Mississippi, Galloway Memorial Methodist, First Christian, and Capitol Street Church of Christ The chapter also includes an account of the sustained campaign in Jackson by black students from Tougaloo University who suffered pain and rejection. William Cunningham, one of the ministers forced to leave Galloway Memorial Methodist Church, commented, “There was agony for the churches outside and agony within…. The church could not change the culture; but the culture changed and carried the church along with it.”

This chapter discusses the First Baptist Church of Covert, New York, which was founded in 1803 and grew steadily from then. It recounts the meetings of the society's trustees, which included managing the church's finances and the appointment of individuals to fill necessary roles. It also mentions that the society's business was related to membership matters, such as admitting new Baptists to the church and dismissing others from fellowship. The chapter features the excerpt from the trustees' minute book from 1832 and 1833, which is considered an example of the type of issues addressed by the trustees of Baptist churches in the region. It includes an entry of the minute book detailing how the First Baptist Church of Covert met by special appointment on January 7, 1832.

Oliver Hart faced a crisis of decision when the Charleston Baptist Church extended an invitation for him to return as pastor there in 1783. Hart repeatedly equivocated in his correspondence with them, but ultimately blessed the appointment of his young friend Richard Furman to the post, thus sealing the union of Regular and Separate Baptists in the South. In Hopewell, Hart continued to lament the absence of revival in his apathetic congregation, as well as his own physical decline and old age. He found his greatest encouragement during these years in the “rising glory” of the young American republic, which he believed to be uniquely blessed by God. He celebrated the federal Constitution and urged his skeptical Baptist colleagues to support its ratification. This chapter also explores Hart’s change of perspective on the issue of slavery.

This chapter examines the issue of absenteeism in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century gathered churches through their manuscript church records. Absenteeism was the offence most frequently cited in disciplinary meetings, yet some members who were censured for absence were active supporters of their churches in other ways. This chapter focuses on those members who were never under a sentence of excommunication but who had ceased to be involved in church life and to take communion. It examines the question of Dissenting identity through lay participation, the reasons why men and women ceased to come to church, and what prompted them to seek reconciliation, sometimes decades after their first admission. Evidence is taken from manuscript church records belonging to Congregational, Particular Baptist, and General Baptist churches, spanning the period c.1640 to c.1714.

Abstract This chapter charts the development of Reverend T. Y. Rogers into one of Reverend Martin Luther King’s disciples. It recounts Rogers’s childhood in Coatopa, Alabama, his education at Alabama State College, his decision to become a Baptist minister, and his relationship with Reverend King. It follows his career as an assistant minister to Reverend King at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, his studies at Crozer Seminary, his first church leadership placement in Roxborough, Pennsylvania, and work with the 400 Ministers and finally his arrival at First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa. It also outlines the growth of First African Baptist Church and the two local civil rights organizations: the Ministerial Alliance, and Tuscaloosa Citizens for Action Committee.

Крайняя малочисленность связанных с христианством находок и их неравномерное распределение во времени создает значительные трудности при восстановлении истории Фанагорийской христианской общины. Восполнить лакуны до некоторой степени помогают имеющиеся сведения об истории христианства в других центрах Северо-Восточного Причерноморья, неотъемлемой частью которого являлась Фанагория. Несомненно, новая религия проникает в Фанагорию, как и в другие центры Боспорского царства, в последней четверти 3 в. из Малой Азии, откуда готы, возвращаясь из своих пиратских набегов, привозили пленных христиан. Именно к периоду после морских походов варваров относятся первые зафиксированные на Боспоре признаки христианства: различные вещи с христианскими символами, христианские участки на некрополе в Керчи. Незначительное количество раннехристианских памятников говорит о том, что в этот период распространение религии в регионе происходило, главным образом, благодаря деятельности миссионеров, и число приверженцев христианства было невелико. С включением Боспора в сферу влияния Византийской империи церковь и государство предпринимают совместные усилия по христианизации региона: скорее всего, именно в это время по обе стороны Керченского пролива строятся церкви, в Фанагории учреждается епископская кафедра и строится христианский храм, внутреннему убранству которого, скорее всего, принадлежали два мраморных резервуара для воды, сигмовидный стол и рельеф с изображением Орфея, найденные при раскопках на «Нижнем городе». Форма и материал, из которого изготовлен один из найденных резервуаров, позво ляет интерпретировать его как крещальную купель. Причем небольшая глубина найден ной емкости не означает, что в ней крестили только детей, поскольку в большинстве случаев крещение совершалось без полного погружения: стоявшего в купели крещаемого просто обливали водой. Однако уже с 4 в. при крещении начали использовать стоячую воду, а наполнять купель предписывалось вручную. Поэтому объяснить назначение двух отверстий в фанагорийском резервуаре в случае его использования в качестве купели трудно. Лучше объясняет наличие двух отверстий другой возможный вариант использования резервуара: в качестве реликвария, в котором хранились мощи, их частицы или какие-то другие реликвии. Через верхнее отверстие в реликварий на хранящиеся в нем мощи наливали масло, которое выливалось через отверстие в нижней части. Что касается чаши с ручками-выступами вдоль края, то подобные емкости, как правило, определяют либо как купели для крещения детей, либо, чаще, как чаши для освященной воды, которую в раннехристианское время использовали для ритуального омовения рук перед входом в храм. Известные автору точные аналогии фанагорийскому сосуду происходят исключительно с территории провинций Мезия Секунда и Фракия. Не исключено, что именно оттуда фанагорийская емкость была привезена войсками, присланными на Боспор Юстинианом для подавления восстания против ставленника Византии Грода. Мраморный сигмовидной стол с арочной каймой также мог входить в состав инвентаря христианского храма. В церковном обиходе использование таких столов было вторичным, взятым из светской жизни и идет от раннехристианской традиции совместных поминальных трапез, совершавшихся над могилами мучеников. Позже их использовали в храмах в качестве престолов и столов для приношений, а также в трапезных монастырей. Несмотря на то, что сигмовидные столы, в частности столы с арочной каймой, использовали как в светском, так и христианском обиходе, их находки вне контекста обычно связывают с христианскими храмами. Однако в подобных случаях нельзя исключать возможность их использования и в качестве обычного обеденного стола. Наконец, с христианством может быть связана мраморная плитка с изображением Орфея, образ которого перешел в христианскую иконографию из языческого искусства. Незначительные размеры и сильная потертость фанагорийского фрагмента, к сожалению, не позволяют уверенно определить религиозный статус изображения, который, как правило устанавливают по составу «слушателей» и контексту. Строго говоря, из перечисленных находок только одну, мраморную чашу с вырезанным крестом, можно отнести к предметам интерьера христианского храмового комплекса безусловно. Сигмовидный стол могли использовать и в христианском культе, и по его прямому назначению – в качестве обеденного стола. Образ Орфея одинаково использовался как язычниками, так и христианами. Разным целям мог служить и мраморный резервуар. Но среди аргументов за и против их использования в христианском культе, все же превалируют первые. Кроме того, обнаружение всех предметов на довольно небольшом участке «Нижнего города» позволяет надеяться на то, что в ходе будущих раскопок здесь будет открыт христианский храм, и таким образом подтвердится предложенная интерпретация найденных предметов. Храм, к которому, возможно, относились перечисленные находки, по-видимому, был разрушен в середине 6 в. Тогда же, скорее всего, прекратила существование и Фанагорийская епархия. Какие-либо сведения о фанагорийских христианах более позднего времени полностью отсутствуют, но, судя по информации о христианских общинах, имевшихся в других центрах региона, а также в городах Хазарского каганата, были они и в Фанагории, которая в этот период, скорее всего, входила в состав Зихийской епархии. У нас нет сви детельств о притеснениях христиан в городах Хазарского каганата. Наоборот, согласно сведениям, содержащимся в письменных источниках, жизнь христиан там протекала до вольно спокойно. О благосклонном отношении хазарской элиты к христианству говорят и браки с византийским императорским домом, в частности брак Юстиниана II и сестры кагана Феодоры, после заключения которого он «уехал в Фанагорию и жил там с Феодорой» (Theoph. Chron. 704–705; пер. И.С. Чичурова). 2 Что же касается археологических свидетельств, то число связанных с христианством находок 8–10 вв. чрезвычайно мало, и их невозможно связать непосредственно с христианским населением Фанагории. Extremely low amounts of finds related to Christianity and their uneven distribution over time presents difficulties in reconstructing the history of the Phanagorian Christian community. The information on the history of Christianity in other centres of the North-Eastern Black Sea, a region where Phanagoria played a crucial part, can help fill the blanks to a certain extent. Without any doubt, the new religion arrived to Phanagoria, as well as to the other centres of the Bosporan kingdom, in the last quarter of the third century AD from Asia Minor, when the Goths brought Christians as captives from their pirate raids. The first recorded signs of Christianity in the Bosporos belong to the period after the sea campaigns of the “barbarians”. These include personal possessions with Christian symbols and Christian burial plots in the necropolis in Kerch. A small number of early Christian monuments points to the fact that during this period the spread of Christianity in the region heavily relied on the activities of missionaries, while the number of christians was still small. Later, after the inclusion of the Bosporos in the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Empire, the church and the state were making joint efforts to Christianize the region: most likely, it was at this time that Christian churches were built on both sides of the Kerch Strait, an episcopal chair was established in Phanagoria and a Christian church was built, decorated with two marble water tanks, a sigmoid table and a relief depicting Orpheus. All this was found during the excavations in the “Lower City” trench. 2 Чичуров 1980, 62. Христианство в Фанагории. Археологические свидетельства 71 The shape and material from which one of the found tanks is made allows for its interpreta tion as a baptistery. The small depth of the found container does not necessarily mean that only children were baptised in it, since in most cases baptism was performed without complete immersion. The baptised stood in the font and water was poured over him. However, from the fourth century AD stagnant water was used for baptism, and the font had to be filled manually. It is, therefore, difficult to explain the purpose of the two holes in the Phanagorean reservoir if it was used as a font. Their presence is better explained by another possible use of the tank – as a reliquary. Oil was poured into the reliquary through the upper opening to cover the relics stored in it, and then came out through the opening in the lower part. Regarding the bowls with protruding handles along the edge, such vessels are considered to serve either as fonts for child baptism, or, more often, as bowls for consecrated water, which, during the early Christian times, were used to wash hands before entering the temple. Their exact analogies, known to the author, come exclusively from the provinces of Moesia Secunda and Thrace. It is possible that it was from there that the Phanagorian container was brought by the troops, which were sent to the Bosporos by Justinian to suppress the uprising against the Byzantine ruler named Grod. A marble sigmoid table with an arched border could also be part of the inventory of a Christian church. In church life, the use of such tables was secondary. It comes from secular life, from the early Christian tradition of communal meals served on the graves of martyrs. Later they were used in temples and monasteries as thrones and tables for offerings. Despite the fact that sigmoid tables, particularly those with an arched border, were used both in secular and Christian everyday life, they are usually associated with Christian churches when found out of context. However, one cannot exclude the possibility of them being used as a regular dining table. Finally, a marble tile with the image of Orpheus, which came to the Christian iconography from pagan art, can also be associated with Christianity. Unfortunately, due to its insignificant size and severe damage, this fragment does not allow us to determine the religious status of the image with any degree of certainty. Usually such assumptions can be made based on the amount of depicted listeners and the find’s context. Strictly speaking, only one of the listed finds, a marble bowl with a carved cross, can be attributed to the items from the interior of the Christian temple. The sigmoid table could be used both in the Christian cult and for its original purpose, as a dining table. The image of Orpheus was used by both pagans and Christians. A marble tank could possibly also serve different purposes. However, between the arguments “for” and “against” its use in a Christian context, the former prevail. In addition, the discovery of all the objects together in a rather small area of the “Lower City” excavation site allows us to hope that, during future excavations, a Christian church will be discovered here, confirming our interpretations. The temple to which the finds may have belonged was apparently destroyed in the middle of the sixth century AD. At the same time, most likely, the Phanagorian diocese also ceased to exist. There is no information on Phanagorian Christians during later periods, but, judging by the information about the Christian communities that existed in other centres of the region, as well as in the cities of the Khazar Khaganate, Christians were present in Phanagoria, which, during this period was likely a part of the Zikhia diocese. So far, we have no evidence of the oppression of Christians in the cities of the Khazar Khaganate. On the contrary, according to the information from written sources, the life of Christians there was a rather calm one. The favourable attitude of the Khazar elite towards Christianity is also evidenced by marriages with the Byzantine imperial family. Of particular interest is the marriage of Justinian II and the sister of the Khagan, Theodora, after which he “left for Phanagoria and lived there with Theodora”. As for archaeological evidence, the number of finds associated with Christianity from the 8th to 10th centuries AD is extremely low, and it is impossible to connect them directly with the Christian population of Phanagoria.

Carol Cortobius was an architect trained in Germany, with an initial practice at Otto Wagner in Vienna, who worked for the Hungarian community in Bucharest building churches. An introduction on the catholic Hungarian community in Bucharest will be given. Dănuț Doboș in a monograph of one catholic church in Bucharest offers an overview of all his works. For the three catholic churches on which he intervened (two built, one restored, but altered now) there are monographs showing archive images not available for the general public. Apart of the catholic churches (two of the Hungarian community) he also built the baptist seminar. Particularly the first built church, Saint Elena, is interesting as an early example of Art Deco and will be analysed in the context of the Secession in Vienna and Budapest, which will be introduced. With help of historic maps the places of the works were identified. Many of them do not exist today anymore because of demolitions either to build new streets or those of the Ceaușescu period (ex. the opereta theatre, a former pharmacy). Images of these were looked for in groups dedicated to he disappeared Uranus neighbourhood The paper will show where these were located. Some of the common buildings have an interesting history, such as the first chocolate factory. Another interesting early Art deco building is the pelican house. There are common details between this and the restored church. The research will be continued with archive research in public archives when the sanitary situation will permit.

After the end of the Second World War, the Serbian Orthodox Church found itself in new social and political circumstances, but also in the legal system of socialist Yugoslavia, which was significantly different from the legal system of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1946, the new communist government adopted the Constitution of the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia, which, among other things, standardized the relationship between the Church and the state. On the territory of the newly formed socialist Yugoslavia, which had just come out of the war, the war against the Serbian Orthodox Church was still raging. From the positions of the new state authorities, liquidations and persecution of bishops, priests and believers of the Serbian Orthodox Church were carried out. Several laws were adopted that were directly directed against the Serbian Orthodox Church and other traditional churches and religious communities. The Law on the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1931 was repealed by the decision of the new communist government, as well as all other regulations that were passed until April 6, 1941. The Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church could not be convened in a regular or extraordinary session in wartime conditions and due to the imprisonment of Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo (Dožić). On November 14, 1946, Patriarch Gavrilo returned to the country and assumed his patriarchal duties. The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, under the presidency of Patriarch Gavrilo, convened the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church for the first regular session after six years of being prevented from convening the highest church body. The session of the Holy Council of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church was held from April 24 to May 21, 1947 in Belgrade. Although there is a belief that amendments to the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1931 were adopted at that session or that the "Constitution was changed", based on the relevant archival material and on the basis of the formal-legal element of this general ecclesiastical-legal act, it is established that The Holy Synod of Bishops, regardless of the numerous norms that have been retained from the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church since 1931, actually adopted the new Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The subject of this work is the Constitution of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 1947, which is still in force in the Serbian Orthodox Church today.

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.