TESTAMENTS OF STEFAN NEMANJA

Stefan Nemanja, Simeon Mirotočivi, the state and spiritual father of the Serbian nation, left written traces of his heritage regarding the land, blood and graves, language and script, state and consciousness, which were valid then and are valid today. Some of Nemanja's wills are the subject of this text.

Awareness of the earth

For a nation that does not have its own country, Stefan Nemanja says that it is a punished nation. And for foreign invaders, who moved like a horde through the country, or are still moving, it is said that they are not a people. They become a people only when they stop and occupy fields and forests, rivers and lakes, seas and shores. Stefan Nemanja says that such hordes were born on one end of the world and died on the other, they never drank water from the same spring, never spent the night where they spent the day and never spent the winter where they spent their summers. Of the lands they conquered, theirs were only roads. They become a people only when they begin to be born and die on the same land and when they begin to sow and plant on the same land, and then to reap. During their history, Serbs, unfortunately, met many conquerors, and yet they were always on their own.

According to Stefan Nemanjić, the land belongs to the one who leaves the seed in it. The earth cannot be taken away and taken with them, whoever wants to be his must stay on it and live on it. The nations that come to the country to plunder, destroy and burn it are not its masters.

And there are Serbs all over the world, and we are spilling and flowing in all directions. There is a danger that in time we will merge into other nations. And if we pour like water into other people's rivers, we will disappear, as if we never even existed. Nemanja told us never to separate from our country or to separate the country from us. He begged us to gather all Serbian countries and to gather everyone in Serbia. And that we do not divide the country for ourselves or others, like the saying: "We do not want others, we do not give our own." People can be said that land is their homeland, it gives them birth and feeds them. The earth is eternal and needs to be protected, not only its fields and mountains, its rivers and seas, but every foot and every stone.

Stefan Nemanja also points out that the people have their blood, which is eternal. In one nation, it is thousands of years old, it ran through the veins of our oldest ancestors. People are born and disappear, and blood remains, flowing from one person to another, from generation to generation. And as the river flows through gorges and fields, so the blood flows through time and through generations, from century to century. Hence the old question, is not who you are and what you are like, but whose blood are you? We must not shed anyone's blood from Nemanja's sermon, but keep our own, because our blood is the blood of our ancestors. Serbs must protect Serbian blood.

Like our blood, the graves of our ancestors make up our people. Stefan Nemanja says that those who do not know about their graves and bones can never become the people. The graves of our ancestors are the silent habitats of our deceased, in which they sleep unawakened in our lands. Therefore, people are not only their living inhabitants, who walk the earth, but also all those who rest in it forever. And if it weren't for those underground, there wouldn't be any on earth. Our cemeteries are the brightest markers of our people and the clearest borders of our homeland. And if no one alive can tell you how far your land reaches, look for the graves and bones of your ancestors, and the dead will tell you the truth.

And just as a meadow is not made by one mowing, so the people are not made by one generation. People like grass grow in waves and in struggles for survival fall on the slopes, but they grow again, even more lush in the new generations.

Awareness of language and script 

Speaking about language and script, his sons Rastko-Sava and Stefan Prvovenčan, Stefan Nemanja begs them to keep the language as well as their country. He warned them not to take someone else's word in their mouth, because, as he says, if you take someone else's word, you know that you did not get it, but you have become alienated. Stefan Nemanja points out that countries are conquered not only with swords, but also with language. He goes on to say: "Know that the enemy has defeated you as much as he has left you his words." And a nation that loses its language ceases to be a nation. Two nations can live in harmony and love, and when their languages ​​mix, they fight each other, whichever language is heard more, in the end they will win, when only one language is heard, the battle is over, one nation disappears. And the battle between languages ​​does not last a day - two, nor a year - two, that battle lasts even for centuries. That is why it is better to lose all the battles in wars, than to lose the language, because after the lost language, there are no more people.

The language is learned in about a year. So much is enough to give it up, and you still need to forget it. When a man renounces his language, he renounces his people.

A nation that does not have its own book and its own letter cannot be called a nation. The spoken word lasts only one moment, and the written word lasts forever. The written word lasts longer than the one who wrote it. If you write a word on stone, wood or paper, you will find it where you wrote it. It is difficult to feel in the dark and look for your past, if the past is written, it remains forever. Hence writing is a conversation with centuries. The alphabet of the language is a strange seed, and that seed is the best grain of every nation. It germinates on paper even after a thousand years, and it blooms in word and story, in image and thought. often what cannot be achieved with a plow and a sword can be achieved with a book and language. People who don’t have their own writers usually have neither a past nor a future. We become a nation when we write in our books, our language and our script. Inscribed in the books of our people in this world, we forever leave a trace that we have existed, that we have been and that we will be. And no one can win a book.

State and government awareness 

According to Stefan Nemanja, people are older and more resilient than the state. They came before the state and remain after it. One nation can live in several states, and several nations can live in one state. However, the intention of St. Stefan Nemanja was one nation and one state, which he left as a legacy to his sons and all generations after them. According to Stefan Nemanja, the Slavs could have been the largest kingdom on earth and the largest people under the sky, if each of their tribes had not fought for their state, in that way they were divided into small nations, even smaller states. And a small country in the world is the same as a small fish in the big sea, a big fish will easily swallow it. It was similar to Serbia, surrounded by Byzantium, while one predator threw it, the other immediately grabbed it. However, Nemanja managed to create a state of all Serbs, and he did not create a kingdom or an empire. He left that to his followers. In the time of Nemanja, not every village could dream of becoming a kingdom. Even in Nemanja's time, there were more Serbs living outside the state of Serbia than there were in the state. Therefore, Nemanja's followers had room to expand their state, which they did. Before his death, Stefan Nemanja was able to announce the happiest news to his sons and his people - "Serbia is being born".

And from his life experience, Nemanja knew that it was better to be a beggar in Serbia than a king. And while he was speaking to his sons, the king died, and another came. The second is killed by the third, and the third is overthrown by the fourth, the fourth by the fifth, and so on, while there are kingdoms and kings. And no one looks at the beggar, no one cares for him, no one clings to his throne. The worst is when there is no emperor or kingdom, king or kingdom, ruler or authority, but only a dissolute people. And our people are ready to accept everything lightly, and to destroy it even more easily. When the invaders moved to Serbia, they relied more on Serbian military leaders than on their own. The conquerors falsely promised them that they would appoint them as ruler, the one who would help them the most. And the Serbian ruler was not recognized by kings, emperors, popes or patriarchs, or foreigners or brothers. Nemanja himself concluded that Serbian history is just a continuous overthrow and appointment of rulers, trying to establish power and the state.

Nemanja says that he got the name Nemanja, which means that he was one who has nothing, and another name, Stefan, which means the one who wears a wreath. If so, and so it is, then Nemanja's wreath still exists in Serbia today and it would be lucky for all of us to wear it as Nemanja's true heirs. Everything that Stefan Nemanja bequeathed to us more than eight centuries ago is still valuable today, and if readers find at least some thoughts worth remembering and passing it onto their young people, then the remainder of Stefan Nemanja's legacy was worth repeating.

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