Vekenega

For the given name, see Vekenega (given name).

Vekenega (Zadar - Zadar, September 27, 1111) was a Croatian Benedictine nun from the House of Madi, a noble family from Zadar. She was the daughter of Čika and the abbess of the Benedictine monastery of St. Maria in Zadar from 1072. She is also known for the richly illuminated evangelistary, which she commissioned in the scriptorium of the monastery of st.Krševan in 1096.[1]

Life

She was the daughter of Čika, a member of the noble patrician Madi family, known to have founded the Benedictine monastery of St. Mary in Zadar.[2] Čika entered the monastery and became abbess.[3] When the king Petar Krešimir IV placed the monastery under the royal protection, he referred to Čika as his sister.[4]

After the tragic death of Vekenega's husband, Dobroslav, Vekenega became a nun in 1072, and entered the monastery of St. Mary.[5] At some point post-1095, Vekenega replaced her mother as abbess.[3] In 1095 or 1096, the Evangelistary of Zadar, also known as the Vekenega Evangelistary, was created at her request.[6] In 1111 she died and was buried at the monastery.[3]

1. Josip Bratulić i Stjepan Damjanović, Hrvatska pisana kultura, 1. svezak, 8. - 17. stoljeće, str. 63, ISBN 953-96657-3-6
2. Curta, Florin (2019-06-25), "The Western Balkans in the High Middle Ages (900–1200)", Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300) (2 vols), Brill, pp. 325–340, ISBN 978-90-04-39519-0, retrieved 2024-09-24
3. Byzantium in Dialogue with the Mediterranean: History and Heritage. BRILL. 2019-03-25. ISBN 978-90-04-39358-5.
4. Stipišić, J. i M. Šamšalović, ur. Codex Diplomaticus Regni Croatiae, Dalmatiae et Slavoniae, sv. 1. Zagreb: Izdavački zavod Jugoslavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti, 1967., p. 102. (Dalje: CD I)
5. Maupas, Dojmo (1863). Prospetto cronologico della storia della Dalmazia: con riguardo alle provincie slave contermini (in Italian). Battara.
6. Curta, Florin (2019-07-08). Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages (500-1300) (2 vols). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-39519-0.

• a's Gospels - 11th Century
• Čika and Vekenega (in Croatian)