Blagaj inscription

Blagaj inscription
view of the tablet

Blagaj inscription (Serbian: Благајски натпис, Blagajski natpis) is an Old Serbian epigraph in the Bosnian Cyrillic script in the form of a stone tablet, dated to 12th century. Was found in 1912 near the ruins of the old Bišća castle and the locality of Vrači. On it, as the founder of the church of St. Cosmas and Damian, the mentioned brother of Stefan Nemanja - Miroslav.

A text in Bosnian Cyrillic is engraved on the stone slab. It is one of the oldest medieval inscriptions written in Old Serbian Cyrillic according to Boris Radaković.

The text on the plaque talks about the construction of the church of St. Cosmas and Damjan in Blagaj na Buna, completed and consecrated in 1194. The plaque was installed above the entrance door to the church, or in the church itself. It is one of the oldest monuments of early medieval literacy of the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with the Hum tablet.

The Blagaj board was discovered in the fifties of the 20th century. The second part was accidentally discovered in the grave of Kate Boras at the cemetery in Blagaj in 1955. Historian Ljubomir Stojanović published the inscription in scientific literature. The found piece contained an inscription stating that a prefect built a church in Podgrađe on his property during the time of the famous Serbian prefect Stefan Nemanja.

During the excavation undertaken at the place where the tablet was found, they found two oval tablets in the same grave. The owner of the grave told them that those slab fragments and slabs with an inscription were brought here from Podgrađe in Blagaj, from the locality of Vrači. The finding helped in the research of the Church of St. Cosme and Damian.

Inscription on the plaque

Marco Vego determined that each line of the inscription could have from 30 to 32 letters; along with other facts, he reconstructed the inscription as follows in Serbian:

ВА ИМЕ ОЦА И СНА И СВЕТАГО ДУХА ЈА ЖУ

ПАН МИРОСЛАВ ЗИДАХ ЦРКВА СВЕТАГ

О КОЗМЕ И ДАМИЈАНА У СВОИХ СЕЛИЈАХ У Д

НИ ВЕЛНЕГА ЖУПАНА СЛАВНАГО НЕМАНЕ.

Has a possibility that the inscription is not older, and that the church was the endowment of a later Orthodox prefect Miroslav, because in the inscription it is mentioned in the Saint Nemanja day, which would mean on the day, on the day when the Church celebrates prefect Nemanja. The calendar of Đurađ Crnojević from 1494 had Stefan Nemanja as full red letter (high holiday) and under the monastic-holy name of Simeon of Serbia. In 1385, Balša II referred to the Nemanjićs as his dear ancestors (...with the prayers and prayers of my holy forefathers, Simeon Nemanja, the first Serbian saint of peace and the saint of Sava...), which indicates a strong cult of the first Nemanjićs even in the pre-Turkish period.

However, most of Historians asserts that means it was in the days of Nemanja's rule, and that the founder of the church was his brother Miroslav, who ruled in Hum at that time.