Blessed
Blessed Stefan Branković of Serbia
ок. 1417 — 9 октября 1476
Also known as: Прп. Стефан Сербский, Стефан Слепой, Стефан Бранкович, деспот Стефан Бранкович, Стефан Сербский
A Serbian despot of the Branković dynasty, blinded on the order of Sultan Murad II, who briefly ruled Serbia in 1458–1459 and died in exile in Italy in 1476. His incorrupt relics were venerated in Syrmia; he is commemorated with his wife Angelina and son John.
Blessed Stefan the Blind, son of the Serbian despot Đurađ Branković and Irene Kantakouzene, was born around 1417 (1420 by other accounts). In 1441 he and his brother Grgur were captured by the Turks and blinded on the order of Sultan Murad II. Excluded from the succession, he ruled Serbia only briefly in 1458–1459 after the death of his younger brother Lazar, until the throne passed to Stefan Tomašević and the Turks took Smederevo in 1459.
In exile he lived in Buda and then in Albania, where in 1460 he married Angelina, daughter of the Albanian prince Gjergj Arianiti Komnenos. The family settled in northern Italy, where Stefan and his sister Katarina bought a castle in Friuli called Belgrado; there he lived in poverty for about ten years and died on 9 October 1476. In 1486 his widow and sons moved to Hungary with his relics, already known for miracles, and placed them in the monastery of St Luke at Kupinovo in Syrmia; the relics of the Branković saints were later kept at Krušedol and were burned by the Turks in 1716. The Serbian Church venerates Stefan, Angelina and their sons Maxim and John as saints; the Russian Church commemorates John and his parents Stefan and Angelina on 10 (23) December.