Putna’s embroidery and fabric treasury includes some pieces that are known to have been worked elsewhere. Both the quality of their execution and the importance of their makers or commissioners place them among the most valuable.
Epitaphios Embroidered by Princesses Euthymia and Eupraxia
Epitaphios Embroidered by Princesses Euthymia and Eupraxia
Chronologically, the first such embroidery is the epitaphios sewn around 1403 by two Serbian princesses who had taken the monastic vows and were later both canonized. Their names appear in the dedicatory inscription: “Lord, please remember the souls of your servants, Nun Euthymia, Queen of Serbia, and her daughter, Nun Eupraxia, Empress of Serbia”.
The biography of these makers adds particular value to the aesthetic value of the epitaphios. Also, their lives are proof of the dramatic confrontation between Christians and the Ottoman Empire, when sacrifice for Christianity has not always managed to save one’s country, but has managed to win the Heavenly Kingdom and the crown of holiness. The presence of the epitaphios at Putna is another testimony to the mission assumed by the Romanian Principalities to continue Christian Orthodox civilization after the Ottoman Empire conquered the Orthodox states south of the Danube.
In the center, there is a representation of Christ’s lifeless body, with the following words underneath: “The host of angels, seeing the sorrowful sight, cried in awe: ‘O, Thou Son of God!’” Twelve embroidered angels surround the scene, with four of them holding altar fans.
Another embroidery connected to the Serbian territory
An embroidery worked in Moldavia, but connected to the Serbian territory, is Mary Despina’s tomb cover († May 11, 1500). She was the consort of Prince Radu the Beautiful of Wallachia and the mother of Mary Voichița, consort of Stephen the Great. The support of the piece is not silk, but velvet, an extremely costly and valuable fabric at the time.
Of overwhelming simplicity and gravity, the tomb cover has a three-armed cross depicted along its entire length, following the model of some tombstones from Serbia, which would later also be used in Wallachia. To the left and right of the vertical axis, above and below the arms of the cross, the following initials are embroidered in metallic thread: IC, XC, NI, KA, Φ, Χ, Φ, Π (Ιησούς Χριστός νίκα – “Jesus Christ conquers” and Φως Χριστού φαίνει πάσι – “Christ’s light illuminates everyone”).
Lady Mary Despina’s tomb cover, 15th century.
St. Euthymia, the daughter of Vojihna, the Serbian kesar of Drama, born in 1349, was baptized Helena and was well-educated by her family. She later married Jovan Uglieša Mrnjačević, Serbian despot of Serres. In 1371, she became widowed at 22, after her husband died in the battle on the Maritsa River, fighting the Turks led by Sultan Murad I. She withdrew to the court of Prince Lazarus Hrebeljanović and his wife Miliča. Just before that, she was tonsured a nun at the Liubostina Monastery, under the name of Euthymia. Euthymia became an accomplished embroiderer, sewing pieces of exquisite beauty. She was the first known woman embroiderer in the Orthodox world. In addition, she was also the first known Serbian poetess, due to the Lamentation she composed and sewn for her son, Uglieša, on an embroidery kept at the Chilandari Monastery from Mount Athos, where he was buried.
In 1389, Prince Lazar died in the Kossovopolje battle, being beheaded by order of Sultan Bayezid I, after he had received 14 wounds in battle. In 1402, as a token of appreciation for this new martyr of Christendom who would later be canonized, Euthymia made a cover for the reliquary preserving his saintly remains.
Epitaphios embroidered by Serbian Princesses Euthymia and Eupraxia. Detail.
The second maker of the Putna epitaphios is Saint Miliča, wife of Prince Lazar. She was born in a family that had given two Serbian saints, Simeon and Sabba. After her husband’s death at Kossovopolje, she took the monastic vows at the Liubostina Monastery, receiving the monastic name of Eugenia, then the schema-nun name of Eupraxia. Saint Euthymia was her monastic spiritual godmother, as it is written on the epitaphios. They embroidered together the epitaphios, on which they inscribed their monastic names and their worldly rank before becoming nuns.
There were also other Serbian princesses whose lives became connected to the Putna Monastery: Mary Despina and her daughter, Mary Voichița, and Helena Branković; one of them must have brought here the epitaphios from Serbia.