Venerable
Venerable Angelina of Serbia
ок. 1440 — ок. 1520
Also known as: Ангелина Бранкович, Прав. Ангелина, деспотисса Сербская, Блж. Ангелина Сербская, Мати Ангелина, Angelina Branković
Wife of the blind Serbian despot Stefan Branković and mother of Sts Maximus and John. She shared her husband's exile and, after his death, became a nun devoted to prayer, charity and church building; the Serbs venerate her as 'Mother Angelina'.
Angelina came from an Albanian princely family; her Life calls her the daughter of Prince George of Albania, whom historians identify with Gjergj Arianiti. Around 1460 she married the Serbian despot Stefan Branković, who had been blinded by the Turks in his youth and briefly ruled Serbia in 1458–1459. She shared his exile in Albania and Italy, where he died in 1476.
Around 1486, after the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus granted her sons lands in Syrmia, the family settled in Kupinovo, where Angelina translated her husband's relics. Her elder son George ruled Syrmia until 1497, then became a monk (St Maximus); the younger, St John, ruled until his death in 1502.
Angelina became a nun around 1509, appealed to Grand Prince Vasily III of Moscow for help for Serbian churches, founded a convent and was known for her charity, so that the people called her 'Mother Angelina'. Having outlived her husband and all her children, she died around 1520. Her relics rested with those of her family at Krušedol Monastery; after the Turks burned it in 1716, only her hand survived. The Russian Church commemorates her on 1 and 30 July and, with Sts Stefan and John, on 10 December (Old Style).