History of the Macedonian People - Institute of National History (2008)

work such as: Dimitar Kratovski (XV century), Jovan Kratovski (XVI century) from the literary center in Kratovo, Vladislav Gramatik (XV century) in Mateiche Monastery, Demetrios Cantacuzenos (XV century) and Vasarion (Varlaam) Debarski (XVI century) in Slepche Monastery who left behind many adherents. All these activities, the transcriptional, educational, literary and cultural activities were carried out simultaneously and were interacting among each other until XIX century when new literary tendencies gradually started becoming dominant. In XVI century there was a bookshop in Skopje owned by Kara Triphun, which played an important role in the expansion process of this kind of philosophical church literature. It is due to mention that the monasteries at Mount Athos (Holy Mountain) that represented the main center for recruitment of monks, who were then working in the churches and monasteries on the Balkans, continued with their work, too.

At the end of the XVI century and especially in the XVII and XVIII century in Macedonia there came a period in which various anthologies were being translated, called “damaskins” by the name of the Byzantine literate Damaskin Studit (XVI century). In these translations in Slavic language, or Church Slavic there were elements from the folk slang, especially in the syntax and in the morphology. In this context it is extremely important the translation of the Damaskin Studit’s homolies from Greek language. This was done by the bishop from Pelagonia, Gregorios, in the second half of the XVI century. Besides that, several significant monuments of the Slavic literacy in Macedonia were created such as: Klement’s gramota, Pismovnik from Slepche (an encyclopedia like book), Macedonian damaskin from XVI century, Tikvesh collection of papers from XVI-XVII century, Trescavec kodica (XVII-XVIII century) and others. In the monastery cells the hagiographical works on medieval saints created in the pre ottoman period continued to exist.

A part of the orthodox Christian motives were reflected in the folk epic poetry. It was created during the whole period of the Ottoman rule and left the deepest traces in the people’s memory. Among the most popular heroes from the folk epic poems as fighters against the Ottomans were mentioned: Kral Marko, Bolen Doichin, Momchilo Voivode, Sekula detence, Gruica detence and others. Later, other epic poems were created about many hayduk leaders. On the other hand, the character of Itar Pejo, the counterpart of muslim folk hero Nasraddin Hodza, took a particular place in the oral folk prose works. Itar Pejo was an illiterate peasant whose personality reflected the folk wisdom, resourcefulness and astuteness.

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