Constantine the Great in old Serbian literature

The article investigates the motive of Constantine the Great, emperor and saint, an equal of the Apostles, in some works dating from the beginning of the 13th to the beginning of the 18th centuries. The first Christian emperor served as an example for the various virtues of Serbian heroes and their act. He was also used to build the genealogic conception of Serbian rulers. It is noteworthy that there was a bond of the Nemanjić dynasty with the emperor’s sister, rather than with the emperor himself. The image of Constantine is closely connected to the True Cross and its fragments, which protected the ruler and his reign. In a mythological perspective, Serbian rulers were a continuation of the Roman emperors and the Christian empire; they are also fully a part of the sacred history of the world as presented by the Bible.