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Sarandaporь
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Place
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The Vita of Saint Joakim Osogovski from the 12th century relates that the Saint came to the deserted mountains of Osogovo (vъ strani gōry pustiny Ōsogovskie). At first, he stayed in the vicinity of the village of Grad’cь (въ selě… Grad’cь). Then, he settled in a cave in Babinь Dōlь at the foot of the Osogovo Mountains (pōdkrilïe gory Osogovskïe) near the river Skupica (pri rěcě gljeměi Skupice). Finally, he went to a plot of land called Sarandaporь (vь pōdkrily gory Osogovskye na městě gljemě Sarandaporь). A certain priest called Theodorь came, after the death of Saint Joakim Osogovski (approximately 1105?) and during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (reigned 1143-1180), from the village of Osmir Dolě, allegedly in Ovče Pole, to Sarandaporь (Vъ dni tie běše ierei imenemь Theōdorь vь stranah Ovčepolьskyh. Vь vsi zovoměi Osmir dolě). Theōdorь was led by divine inspiration and came with the blessing of the Saint. He became a monk and changed his name to Teofan. He built a church in honor of Saint Joakim Osogovski and kept his relics there. He was also the first abbot of the monastery. A monk called Arsenije from the city of Veles (ōt Velesa grad) experienced his conversion in the monastery's church. The genealogical tables of the Serbain rulers attest that the Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin (reigned 1282-1321) founded several monasteries, including that of Saint Joakim (Sarandaporь svetomu otcu Їōakimu). Actually, King Milutin did not found it, but gave order to renew it. The Serbian King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski (reigned 1321-1331) crossed, in the run-up to the battle of Velbužd on 28 July 1330, the region of Slavište. He followed the upper course of the Kriva reka and reached Kriva Palanka, where he prayed with his noblemen at the Monastery of Sarandaporь in front of the relics of Saint Joakim Osogovski (Takožde i kь svetomu otьcu Ioakimu suštemu vь Saranьdaporě molьbu tvore prišьdь kь grobu těla jego). News reached him in Sarandaporь that the Bulgarian Tsar Michael III Šišman (reigned 1323-1330) had arrived at the castle of Zemen and had begun to pillage the surrounding area. The Byzantine short chronicles relate that the Ottoman Sultan Bāyezīd I (reigned 1389-1402) handed over the relics of the Saint Ilariōn of Moglena to the Serbian nobleman Konstantin Dragaš in 1393. According to this written source, Konstantin Dragaš, who resided in Žegligovo (ὁποῦ ἐκάθετον εἰς τὸν Ὀζίγλοβο), brought them to the Monastery of Saint Archangel Michael (sic!) in Sarandaporь (τοῦ ἤφερεν εἰς τὸ ἅγιον μοναστήριον τοῦ Ταξιάρχου εἰς τὸ Σαραντάπωρον). The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (reigned 1451-1481) stayed in the Monastery of Sarandaporь in 1463 on his campaign to Bosnia (i dohodi u manastirь Sarandaporь na Krivoi rěcě). The Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) decided in 1474 to give a donation of 20 perper to the Monastery of Sarandaporь (elemosinam monasterio Sancti Joachim partium Bulgarie). Arsenij, who was the abbot of the Monastery of Sarandaporь, died in 1488 (prěstavi se igumenь Sarandaporskyi, kyr Arsenїe). 41 Monks lived in the monastery according to the Ottoman Defter from 1519. Sarandaporь is registered as Sveti Otec in Egri Dere (Kriva Palanka; Kriva reka) in the Defter for the Sanjak Köstendil from the years 1570 to 1572. The monastery had three churches and twelve chapels. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1585 and rebuilt afterwards.
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Žegligovo
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Place
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According to the Life of Saint Prohor Pčinjski (11th century) Prohor settled in a small cave in the deserted area of Nagoričino in Žegligovo (vь Žegligovskoj straně). The Saint met the later Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes (reigned 1068-1071), who was hunting in Žegligovo. Between 1300 and 1318/21 a certain anagnost Radin from Nagoričino in Žegligovo (anagnosta Radina Nagoričanina izь Žegligova) wrote a gospel for the priest Zagoranin in Sušica. According to the Lives of the Serbian Kings and Archbishops, written by Archbishop Danilo II and his successors, the Serbian King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski (reigned 1321-1331) gathered his army in the forefront of the Battle of Velbužd in the first half of 1330 on a field called Dobrič, located in today's South-Eastern Serbia at the confluence of the rivers Južna Morava and Toplica. He intended to confront the Bulgarian Tsar Michael III Šišman (reigned 1323-1330) at this place. As messengers informed him that the Bulgarian Tsar had reached the castle of Zemen in the upper course of the river Strymon (Struma), at that time the border between the Serbian Kingdom and the Second Bulgarian Empire, he set his army in march and first moved to Nagoričino, where he prayed in the Church of Saint George (priide vь monastirь svoi kь svetomu mučeniku Hristovu Georьgiju Nagoričьskomu). After the Serbian victory at the Battle of Velbužd near today's Kjustendil on 28 July 1330, Stefan Dečanski captured Michael Šišman and brought him to Žegligovo (aduxere eum in Segligovo), where he died and was buried in the Church of Saint George in the village of Nagoričino (et sepulchro datus est in Ecclesia sancti Georgii in pago Gorichina). In the year 1349 (u zemli žegligovьskoi) and 1354/55 respectively (u zemli žegligovьskoi) the Serbian Emperor Stefan Uroš IV Dušan (reigned 1331-1355) mentions Žegligovo in his charters for Church of the Presentation of the Holy Mother of God in the village of Arhiljevica. The localisation of Arhilevjica remains unsolved. It might have lain near Preševo (today in Serbia) or in the Skopska Crna Gora in the triangle of the villages of Belanovce, Domanovci and Izvorь. In the Serbian Annals a church in the Skopska Crna Gora above Žegligovo is mentioned (u Črьmьnyje Gory, vyše Žegligova; eius vero mater aedificavit Ecclesiam in Nigro Monte, supra Segligovo). The same source often conflates Žegligovo and Nagoričino in one unit (I u Nagoričinu na Žegligovo crьkov svetago velikomučenika Georgïa; i u Nagoričinu na Žegligovu crkovь svetago velikomučenika Georgïa; i u Nagoričinu na Žegligovu crkovь svetago mučenika Georgïa; i u Nagoričinu na Žegligovo crьkovь svetago velikomučenika Georgïa; i u Nagoričinu na Žegligovu crkovь svetago velikomučenika Georgïa). Žegligovo is mentioned by the Serbian Janissary Konstantin Mihailović (15th century) in his memoirs ("and as he [scilicet the Serbian Emperor Stefan Uroš V] reached the land of Constantine, he pitched his tent in the field of Žegligovo" and "as the Sultan Mehmed [II] arrived near the field called Žegligovo on the border of Rascia"). The term "Land of Constantine" relates to the Serbian Despot Konstantin Dragaš, who ruled over Žegligovo in the second half of the 14th century and was therefore called "Žegligovac". Žegligovo served probably as a deployment area for the Ottoman Sultan Murad I (reigned 1360-1389) before the Battle of Kosovo in June 1389 against the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović (reigned 1373-1389). The Byzantine Short Chronicles report that the Ottoman Sultan Bāyezīd I (reigned 1389-1402) handed over the relics of Saint Hilarion of Moglena (11th/12th centuries) to Konstantin Dragaš in 1394, who resided in Žegligovo (ὁποῦ ἐκάθετον εἰς τὸν Ὀζίγλοβο). Thereupon, Konstantin brought the relics to the Monastery of Sarandaporь. In the year 1395 Konstantin Dragaš fell in the Battle of Rovine against the Wallachian Voivode Mircea the Elder (reigned 1386-1418). In the year 1479 the scribe Vladislav Gramatik compiled a liturgical book (Panegyrikon) in the Monastery of Saint Bogorodica Črьnogorska at the foot of the Črьna Gora (Skopska Crna Gora) in the region of Žegligovo (vь prědělě žegligovscěm). The humanist and diplomat Felix Petančić (ca. 1455-after 1517) refers to Žegligovo as "Gegligove". In 1512 Ottoman troops pillaged Žegligovo and Ovče Pole (To lěto plěniše Turci Žegligovo, Ovče Polě). In the summer of 1550 Klementios was appointed Metropolitan of Skopje, Vranje and Žegligovo (μητρόπολιν Σκοπίου, Βράνιας καὶ Ζεγληγόβου). Žegligovo is mentioned in the Vodičnički pomenik from the 16th century. The župa of Žegligovo roughly included the area to the South of Preševo (today in Serbia), to the West of Slavište, to the North of Ovče Pole and the valley of the river Vardar and to the East of the Skopska Crna Gora.
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