Traditionally under the care of the Andrović family from the village of Velji Mikulići in southeastern Montenegro, the cross is only shown to believers on the Feast of Pentecost, when it is carried in a procession to the summit of Mount Rumija.

A local tradition has it that Vladimir's court was situated on the hillock called Kraljič, at the village of Koštanjica near Lake Skadar, in the Krajina region of southeastern Montenegro.

[16][17] Vladimir's reign coincided with a protracted war between the Byzantine Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025) and the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, Tsar Samuel (r. 980–1014).

A Serbian diplomatic mission, most likely sent from Duklja, arrived in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople in 992 and was recorded in a charter of the Great Lavra Monastery, written in 993.

[6] According to the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, he performed a miracle there: the hill was infested with venomous snakes, but when he offered up a prayer to the Lord, their bites became harmless.

[19] The chronicle states that while Vladimir languished in the Prespa prison, praying day and night, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and foretold that he would shortly be freed, but that he would die a martyr's death.

Noticing Vladimir among the prisoners, she was struck by his handsome appearance, his humility, gentleness and modesty, and the fact that he was full of wisdom and knowledge of the Lord.

[6][17] His paternal uncle Dragimir, ruler of Travunia and Zachlumia, who had retreated before Samuel's army, was given back his lands to rule, also as the tsar's vassal.

[3][23] Thereafter, as recorded in the chronicle, "Vladimir lived with his wife Cossara in all sanctity and chastity, worshipping God and serving him night and day, and he ruled the people entrusted to him in a Godfearing and just manner.

[24][34] In around 1215—when Krajina was under the rule of Serbian Grand Prince Stefan Nemanjić—the relics were presumably removed from this church and transported to Dyrrhachium by the troops of Michael I, the despot of Epirus.

[36] In 1381 he rebuilt, in Byzantine style, a church ruined in an earthquake in the narrow valley of the stream Kusha, a tributary of the Shkumbin River—near the site of the town of Elbasan in central Albania (built in the 15th century).

In this period, the veneration of Saint Jovan Vladimir was promoted in southern Albania and western Macedonia, as well as beyond the archbishopric, in Bulgaria and among the Serbs in the Kingdom of Hungary.

[35] In more recent times the monastery fell into disrepair, and in the 1960s it was closed by Albania's Communist authorities;[40] in 1967 the reliquary with the saint's relics was moved to St Mary's Church in Elbasan.

After the morning liturgy has been celebrated, chanting priests carry the reliquary three times around the church, followed by the devotees, who hold lit candles.

[51] The bronze sculpture King Jovan Vladimir, 4 m (13 ft) in height, was installed at the central square of Bar in 2001; it is a work by sculptor Nenad Šoškić.

[54][55] According to Russian scholars Ivan Yastrebov and Pavel Rovinsky, the cross was originally kept in the Prečista Krajinska Church, in which Kosara had interred Vladimir.

This is the period when Duklja's rulers from the Vojislavljević dynasty endeavored to obtain the royal insignia from the Pope, and to elevate the Bishopric of Bar to an archbishopric.

[6][7] The hagiography in the chronicle is the source for the "Poem of King Vladimir" composed in the 18th century by a Franciscan friar from Dalmatia, Andrija Kačić Miošić.

[60][61] The Greek akolouthia on Saint Jovan Vladimir, containing his hagiography, prayers to him, and hymns to be chanted in church services on his feast day, was printed in Venice in 1690.

[38] A shorter hagiography of the saint, based on his life contained in this akolouthia, was included in the Synaxarium composed by Nicodemus the Hagiorite, printed in Venice (1819) and Athens (1868).

[63] In Cosmas's writing, the saint was named "Jovan from Vladimir"; his father was Nemanja (historically, Grand Prince of Serbia from 1166 to 1196), and his grandfather was Simeon (Bulgarian Tsar from 893 to 927).

When the two brothers-in-law rode together, accompanied by soldiers, the heretic suddenly struck Jovan with a sword at a mountain pass named Derven, but could not cut him.

According to Vladimir's life in Church Slavonic, he succeeded his father Petrislav as the ruler of Serbian lands; he ruled from the town of Alba.

Samuel, Gavril Radomir, Vladimir, and Vladislav, ancient Bulgarian tsars, who inherited both the earthly and the heavenly empires, Memory Eternal.

[34] Hristofor Žefarović, an artist from Macedonia, painted the frescos in the rebuilt church of the Serbian Monastery of Bođani, in the Bačka region (then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) in 1737.

There, he depicted Jovan Vladimir in a row of six Serb saints, wearing a crown and sceptre, clad in a full-length tunic, loros (a type of stole), and chlamys.

The Greek text beneath the illustration names the saint as Jovan Vladimir, the pious Emperor of all Albania and Bulgaria, the graceful Wonderworker and Great Martyr, and true Myrrh-gusher.

[75] In the western fringe of Macedonia, which is now part of Albania, Jovan Vladimir was remembered as a saintly ruler, cut down by his father-in-law, an emperor, who believed the slanderous accusation that he was a womanizer.

The enraged emperor, accompanied by soldiers, found Vladimir on a mountain pass named Qafë Thanë (also known as Derven), on the road between the Macedonian town of Struga and Elbasan.

[37] Macedonian Slavs inhabiting Saint Achillius Island in the Small Prespa Lake in Greece told of an emperor named Mirče.