By St. Nikolai Velimirovich
The greatest treasure of any realm is the saintly and good men who live in it. Compared to this wealth, all other wealth is as nothing. Devout Christian emperors considered holy men in their realms as the greatest of God's blessing. The holy Emperor Constantine the Great spoke: "I give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ that in my days there exist three divine lights: Blessed Abba Anthony, Abba Elenius and Abba Euchius." Before the battle of Kulikovo, crucial for the Russians, the devout Prince Dimitri of Don, with his chief assistants and dukes, went to the forest of Radonez to seek out the Venerable Sergius and implored his intercession before God. Even though the prince prepared his army for a liberating war against the Tartars, somehow, he placed greater hope in the prayers of one holy man than in a vast army and many weapons.