Hegumen Mardarije

Hegumen Mardarije (fl. 1543–45) was a Serbian Orthodox monk and one of the first printers of Serbian language books.
Mardarije received his education in the Monastery of the Holy Trinity of Pljevlja. To save its liturgical books and other valuables, he moved to Banja Monastery and became its hegumen. In 1543 he and two monks from Mileševa monastery travelled to Venice to buy the printing press and bring it to Mileševa to establish the Mileševa printing house.

He was a Serb from Podrinje, who descended from Vraneši, Sokolac, Sanjak of Bosnia, Ottoman Empire (modern day Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Mardarije was educated in the Monastery of the Holy Trinity of Pljevlja. When he learned that the Ottomans were going to destroy Ljuboviđa Church in Pavino Polje, he took liturgical books and other valuables and transported them to Banja Monastery using six loaded horses.

In 1543 Mardarije was a hegumen of the Banja Monastery near Priboj when Todor Ljubavić, a monk in Mileševa and son of Božidar Ljubavić, was sent to Venice to join his brother Đurađ and to buy a printing press for the monastery. Todor was accompanied by the Mileševa monk Sava and by Mardarije. At that time Banja Monastery was a seat of the metropolitan bishop while Mileševa was the richest monastery of Dabar eparchy. That is why those two monasteries were given the task to finance and organize establishing of the printing house in Mileševa and why Mardarije travelled to Venice together with monks from Mileševa. The Mileševa printing house was operational in period 1544–1557. Three books were printed in it, Psalter (Псалтир, 1544), Breviary (Требник, 1545) and another Psalter (1557). Psalter of 1544 was edited and prepared by Mardarije and Teodor Ljubavić, based on 1519–20 Psalter of Božidar Vuković.

In 1545 Mardarije went to Bogovađa near Lajkovac and rebuilt it. An engraved plate commemorates this rebuilding and mentions Mardarije and Vraneši as his fatherland.

In many earlier sources Hegumen Mardarije who was hegumen of the Banja Monastery is misidentified with Hieromonk Mardarije who was also printer, but in Mrkšina crkva printing house and Belgrade printing house. Taking in consideration that Mardarije of Mrkšina crkva never mentioned in his books his much higher position of the hegumen of Banja monastery, it was concluded that Hegumen Mardarije and Hieromonk Mardarije were two different persons.