[4] In the autumn of 1192 (or shortly thereafter)[5] Rastko joined Russian monks and traveled to Mount Athos where he took monastic vows and spent several years.

[6] He returned to Serbia in 1207, taking the remains of his father with him, which he relocates to the Studenica monastery, after reconciling Stefan Nemanja II with Vukan, who had earlier been in a succession feud.

[6] The monastery was founded by King Stefan Prvovenčani and Saint Sava,[6] in the Rascian architectural style, between 1208 and 1230, with the help of Greek masters.

[7] When Serbia was invaded by Hungary, Saint Sava sent Arsenije I Sremac to find a safer place in the south to establish a new episcopal See.

[10] Patriarch Nikon joined Despot Đurađ Branković when the capital was moved to Smederevo, following Turkish-Hungarian wars in the territory of Serbia in the 1430s.

[11] Renovation was carried out during the time of Archbishops Jevstatije II (1292-1309), and Nikodim (1317-37), when the refectory was adorned with frescoes, the church covered with a leaden roof, and a tower erected.

Fragments have survived to the present day on the east wall of the passage beneath the tower (composition of King Stefan Nemanja II and his firstborn son Radoslav), in the narthex, nave and side-chapels.

[13] During the Uprising in Serbia in 1941, the first skirmishes within the Siege of Kraljevo began in the early afternoon on 9 October 1941 near Monastery of Žiča when the Chetnik unit commanded by Milutin Janković attacked German unit which retreated to Kraljevo after a whole day battle in which Germans used canons to shell the monastery.