Who is sveti sava

This act of veneration oftheir father was the first step in healing the fraternal schism between Vukan and King Stephen. Shortly thereafter, the civil war was halted and a peace agreement was drawn up, once again restoring the kingdom of Serbia as it was under the reign of the great King Stephen Nemanja-St. Simeon the Myrrh-bearer. In discussions with his reunited brothers, Sava also designed plans for an immediate, systematic and far-reaching missionary program to save the Orthodox soul of the Serbian people.

Studenitsa Monastery, with St. As newly elected abbot of Studenitsa, Archimandrite Sava personally went on several missions throughout the territories, preaching and teaching the Word of God in the churches as well as renewing and creating monasteries, building many churches, opening iconography schools, and in general establishing and confirming the populace in the Orthodox faith.

Sava was concerned not only with the spiritual welfare of the kingdom, but also with the material condition of the people, as he constantly advised his two older brothers, especially King Stephen, on how to better feed, clothe and administer the people. Truly St.

Sava carried out and actualized the great commandment of Christ: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. These missionary efforts were for Sava, as always, ascetic exercises allowing him to be more fully immersed in the eternal grace, love and beauty of the Holy Spirit of God.

These acts demonstrated his tremendous love for his people. Sava was fast becoming a great Serbian ecclesiastical leader; and in the ensuing years his continual wise leadership would enable him to become a well-respected international ecclesiastical figure as well. The international situation, as mentioned, was also in disarray. The increasing papal power in the East could no longer be ignored.

Byzantium was fighting a losing battle. The Byzantine Empire, like Serbia, was divided in two, with one political center at Constantinople and the other at Thessalonica; with the two rival factions, the Niceans and the Epirotes, fighting for political control over the Empire.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople, the ultimate ecclesiastical administrative overseer of Serbia, was split in three, with centers at Nicea, Trebizond and Ochrid. As a result of this confusion and turmoil, King Stephen, at the advice of his wife, Queen Anna, decided to ally Serbia with the Pope of Rome in order to stem the tide against the attacks of the Hungarian King Andreas III and those of the Latinophiles in Constantinople.

This decision on the part of Stephen angered his brother Sava, who, due to his loyalty to Orthodoxy and the Byzantine State, decided to return to the Holy Mountain. Hence, in , at age 42, after thirteen years of missionary activity in his homeland, Sava traveled once again to his true spiritual home, Hilandar Monastery on the Holy Mountain, in order to be alone with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Yet this was only for a short while, for the Lord had many tasks still ahead for Blessed Sava to fulfill. Sava spent a little less than two years at Hilandar after his departure from Serbia The miracle-working oil exuding from the holy relics of his father Simeon stopped flowing.

The people were outraged at King Stephen for driving Sava away. As a result, Stephen wrote to Sava imploring him to return. Stephen also renounced his western ties and attempted to reconcile with the Byzantine emperor in Nicea, Theodore Laskaris For whatever we are, we are still your children.

Allow, therefore, the myrrh to flow again from your body in the tomb as before, to bring joy and relief to your people now in mourning. The letter also disclosed plans Sava had received in a dream from Almighty God: to obtain from Nicea the independence of the Serbian Orthodox Church. When the letter was read aloud in Studenitsa, immediately the miraculous myrrh from the relics of the holy patriarchal leader Simeon began to flow once again. Thus, by the will of the Lord, Sava set out to journey homeward for a second time from Hilandar in order to heal his people and to bring them glad tidings of salvation, faith and unity.

Prior to his return, Sava traveled eastward to Nicea, the city where the Imperial Patriarch Manuel Sarantenos resided, the highest ecclesiastical authority permitted to grant independence to a local Church. Sava, who also brought with him several monks of Hilandar, discussed his vision with the Patriarch and Emperor Theodore. But after a careful review of the polilical and ecclesiastical difficulties in the Balkans—not only in Serbia but also between Nicea and Epirus—this request on the part of Sava began to make perfect sense to both the Patriarch and the Emperor.

Also, the Archbishop of Ochrid was becoming too powerful; with independence granted to the Serbs, his power would diminish. The Serbian Orthodox Church, now independent, would remain under the direct jurisdiction of the Patriarchate. As is well known, the Serbian Orthodox Church did not receive her own Patriarch until over one hundred years later, becoming autocephalous on Palm Sunday, April 9, Thus, the situation was quite favorable to all involved.

At first, Sava vehemently refused this offer on the grounds that he felt he was truly unworthy for such a position and calling. He offered several of the monks from Hilandar who were present as potential candidates for the position. In the end, Sava accepted and was consecrated in Nicea on the Feast of St. Nicholas, December 6, , becoming the first Archbishop of the newly autonomous Orthodox Church of Serbia. He was 44 years old at the time. Therefore, all you Orthodox Christians, obey him as you have obeyed me.

After his consecration, Sava returned to the Holy Mountain in order to say farewell to Hilandar and to receive the blessing and prayers of the entire monastic community of the Holy Mountain. To the Holy Mountain and Hilandar in particular , his true spiritual home, the holy place where he had spent over twenty-five years of his life and which he thought he would never leave, Sava now had to bid farewell. Although the monks welcomed him and treated him with the highest dignity and respect accorded his ecclesiastical position, they all nevertheless were saddened by the loss of their beloved brother and friend, the simple monk Sava.

The newly consecrated Archbishop Sava then traveled by boat to Thessalonica, where he tarried awhile at Philokalos Monastery. At Philokalos, he, along with a few others, made a translation from Greek into Slavonic of the Byzantine ecclesiastical law book The Rudder or Nomocanon of St. Photios the Great 9th century.

Called Kormchaja Knjiga Book of the Pilot in Slavonic, this translation contained not only the ecclesiastical canons—including the dogmatic decrees of the Seven Ecumenical Councils—with commentaries by the best medieval Greek canonists, but also numerous precepts of the Fathers of the Church along with several of the imperial edicts of the great Byzantine Emperor Justinian 6th century.

For example, Sava divided the kingdom into nine dioceses according to the civil boundaries of the land, which was the Byzantine way of ecclesiastical division. Each episcopal seat was located in the capital of the said territory, which enabled both the civil and ecclesiastical leaders to work harmoniously for the material and spiritual benefit of the Serbian people.

Each diocese residence was established in a monastery, with the headquarters of the Archbishop at Zhicha Monastery. Also, it is worthy to note that this Slavonic translation, St. After a short stay there, he left in order to ascend his archiepiscopal throne in the newly consecrated Zhicha Monastery, the foundational monastery of King Stephen, located on the right bank of the Ibar river only five miles southwest of Kraljevo.

The architectural style of Zhicha Monastery was of the school of Rashka or the Serbo-Byzantine style, characterized by the semi-circular apse at the eastern end of the main church, a separated narthex entrance area or vestibule on the west end where in the monasteries the Divine Services of Compline, Midnight Office, Hours and the Litya on the eve of Great Feasts are said , along with a large dome joining the two ends to focus the worshippers to the center of the church.

As the spiritual center of Serbian Orthodoxy, Zhicha Monastery would once again lead the efforts toward the total enculturation of the Serbian people into the Orthodox vision and way of life.

To establish Zhicha as the religious and political center of the kingdom of Serbia, Sava decided that on the first day of his archiepiscopacy in Zhicha, the Feast of the Ascension, , he would, as the newly consecrated Archbishop of Serbia, coronate his brother Stephen as the first Serbian King.

Even though Stephen had previously assumed the throne in 1 after his father Stephen Nemanja-St. Simeon had abdicated, nonetheless his coronation at this time officially proclaimed him, before all countries, as the rightful Orthodox King of Serbia.

This coronation marked the end to any western ties by the Nemanja dynasty. As during his earlier stay in Serbia, Sava met with difficulties. Sava spent the first ten years of his archiepiscopacy primarily in organizing the Church, setting up dioceses, renewing monasteries and strengthening the populace against all pressures from both the Greeks and the Latins.

It must be noted that never once did Sava call for any retaliation or hostilities against the Greek or Roman dioceses in Serbia. Also, during this time, Sava experienced another setback. Prior to his death, Stephen received the monastic tonsure and the name Simon.

As a result, the newly coronated King Radislav, against the wishes of Sava, called for a return of the fledgling Serbian Church to the protectorate of the Greek Archbishop of Ochrid.

This political maneuver was too much for Sava, and he once again had thoughts of fleeing his homeland. But where could he go? He was now their permanent Archbishop and could not possibly go back to Hilandar. Thus, in , after ten years of dedicated hard work and fruitful labor in the vineyard of the Lord in his homeland, Sava decided to renew his own spirit by pilgrimaging to the cradle of Christianity itself, Jerusalem, where the Lord first brought salvation to the world.

In Jerusalem, Sava purchased the house in which, according to some records, Jesus Christ and His disciples celebrated the Passover in the year he was crucified. He bought it from a Moslem and returned it safely into the hands of the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. Also, Sava made arrangements which facilitated visitations by Serbian pilgrims to the Holy Land. He paved the way for Serbian monastic colonies to settle and flourish in Palestine and the surrounding desert areas during the time of the Serbian Medieval State early 13th to mid l5th centuries.

Sava also built new churches, renewed existing ones, financed monasteries, and spent many hours in conversation with the great ascetics of the deserts of the Middle East, learning more of the art of prayer, fasting, and the taming of the passions of the flesh.

In particular, Sava visited the monastery of his namesake, St. After his consecration, Sava returned to the Holy Mountain in order to say farewell to Hilandar and to receive the blessing and prayers of the entire monastic community of the Holy Mountain. The newly consecrated Archbishop Sava then traveled by boat to Thessalonica, where he tarried awhile at Philokalos Monastery. At Philokalos, he, along with a few others, made a translation from Greek into Slavonic of the Byzantine ecclesiastical law book The Rudder or Nomocanon of St.

Photios the Great 9th century. Called KormchajaKnjiga "Book of the Pilot" in Slavonic, this translation contained not only the ecclesiastical canons —including the dogmatic decrees of the seven Ecumenical Councils —with commentaries by the best medieval Greek canonists, but also numerous precepts of the Fathers of the Church and several of the imperial edicts of the great Byzantine Emperor Justinian 6th century.

In he crowned his nephew Radoslav as king. Venerable Sava decided to visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Thus, in , after ten years of dedicated hard work and fruitful labor in the vineyard of the Lord in his homeland, Sava decided to renew his own spirit by making a pilgrimage to the cradle of Christianity itself, Jerusalem, where the Lord first brought salvation to the world. There he met with John, the new emperor of Byzantium now residing in Nicea, who succeeded Theodore Laskaris. He also met Germanus , the new patriarch who succeeded the late Patriarch Manuel.

In Serbia a new civil war broke out between Radoslav and his brother Vladislav. Unfortunately for Radislav, his military prowess waned as well, for in a fratricidal civil war against his younger brother Vladislav during the summer of , he was defeated and exiled to Durazzo, Albania. Although Sava was unsuccessful in reconciling these brothers—who were both disloyal to their grandfather St.

Simeon's call for unity—nevertheless he knew it was better for the country to be ruled by Vladislav. Several years later, as a result of his negotiations with King Vladislav, Sava was able to obtain safe conduct for Radislav, who was allowed to return to Serbia.

Unfortunately again for Radislav, his wife had eloped with a French duke during his exile in Albania. Radislav then decided to become a monk, and Sava tonsured him, giving him the name "Jovan John. Sava abdicated from archepiscopal see in and appointed his most capable pupil St. Arsenije as Archbisop of Serbia In the spring of , Archbishop Sava, age 59, only five years after his first trip to the Holy Land, decided to make a second pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Upon arrival in Jerusalem, Sava lodged at the St. George Monastery in Acre, a monastery he had purchased from the Latins during his first pilgrimage. He then went to St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai, where he spent Great Lent of This was a most blessed Paschal journey for Sava, for he climbed the heights where the great man of God, Moses the God-seer and Deliverer of his people, had spent many hours speaking to the Lord God face to face as a friend converses with a friend. Sava, too, had been a "Moses" to his people, pastoring, leading and organizing them into a community of God.

After the Paschal celebration of , Sava returned to Jerusalem and then traveled to Antioch. Participating in a ceremony called Blessing of the Waters Agiasmo he developed a cough that progressed into pneumonia. He died from pneumonia in the evening between Saturday and Sunday, January 14 , There were many miracles at the grave of St. French diplomat Jacques de Chenoais wrote in that he saw uncorrupted relics of St.

The Church of Saint Sava was built near the place where his relics were burned. Its construction began in the s and was completed in It is one of the largest churches in the world. There are many temples dedicated to St. As early as the beginning of the 14th century, Serbian Archbishop Nikodim I s. Helena of Bulgaria, the wife of Emperor Stefan Dusan r.

Simeon and St. One of the churches of Rossikon on Mount Athos, as well as a church in Thessaloniki, are dedicated to him. Churches throughout Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro are dedicated to him, as well as churches in diaspora communities. There are close to no Serbian churches that do not have a depiction of St. He is most often depicted as an archpriest, or together with his father, St. The translation of his relics is illustrated in the church of the Gradac Monastery, and in the Monastery of Pec in the Bogorodica Odigitrije temple the scene where Sava appoints his successor Arsenije is depicted.

In the Church of St. George, also in the Monastery of Pec, an assembly of Sava is depicted. Iconographer zograf Georgije Mitrofanovic illustrated events from the Life of St. Sava in the dining room of Hilandar. Sava is depicted in eight compositions, and in the Athonite monastery of St. Panteleimon Monastery he is depicted as a monk. Sava is depicted with St.

Simeon on an icon from the 14th century, which is held in the National Museum in Belgrade, and on an icon held in the National Museum in Bucharest. The pair is depicted on tens of icons held in Hilandar.

Other icons of them are found in the monasteries of Lepavina and Krka, and on the triptych of Orahovica. On an icon of Moraca, beside a scene from his life, he is depicted with St. Simeon, Prince Stefan and St.

Cyril the Philosopher. Graphical illustrations of St. Sava are found in old Serbian printed books: Triode from the Mrksina crkva printing house , Zbornik of Jakov of Kamena Reka , as well as Sabornik of Bozidar Vukovic where he is depicted with St. There are notable depictions of Sava in chalcography, one of which was made by Zaharije Orfelin — In Hilandar, there are two woodcuts depicting St.

Sava and St. Simeon holding the Three-handed Theotokos icon. His person is illustrated on numerous liturgical metal and textile items, while he and scenes from his life are illuminated in many manuscripts and printed books. Many Serbian poets have written poetry dedicated to St. Sava founded and reconstructed churches and monasteries wherever he stayed.

While staying at Vatopedi, even before the arrival of his father , he founded three chapels paraklisi. He had the monastery church covered in lead, and was regarded the second ktetor, also having donated highly valuable ecclesiastical art objects. Together with his father he was the great, second ktetor of the monasteries of Iviron, Great Lavra and churches in Karyes.

The most important was Hilandar, together with his father He then founded the cell at Karyes, and in became ktetor of three more Authonite monasteries: Karakallou, Xeropotamou, and Philotheou. Returning to Serbia in , Sava continued his work. His most important architectural work was the Home of the Holy Saviour, called Zica, the first seat of the Serbian Archbishopric.

In Pec he built the Church of the Holy Apostles, and he was also involved in the building of the Mileseva monastery. John the Apostle, as a shelter for Serb pilgrims. Sava donated gold to many monasteries in Palestine, Thessaloniki, and especially Mount Athos.

His ktetor activity was an expression of deep devotion and sincere loyalty to Christian ideals. The earliest works of Sava were dedicated to ascetic and monastic life: the Karyes Typikon and Hilandar Typikon. The organization of the Serbian church with united areas was set on a completely new basis. The activity of major monasteries developed; caretaking of missionary work was put under the duty of the proto-priests.

Legal regulations of the Serbian Church were constituted with a code of a new, independent, compilation of Sava — the Nomocanon. With this codification of Byzantine law, Serbia already at the beginning of the 13th century received a firm legal order and became a state of law, in which the rich Greek-Roman law heritage was built.

With this, Sava made Serbia a country among the European and Mediterranean civilization. Saint Sava. Early life Rastko, a diminutive of Rastislav, was born in or , in Gradina modern Podgorica. Enlightenment Having spent 14 years in Mount Athos, Sava had extensive theological knowledge and spiritual power. First pilgrimage After the crowning of his nephew Radoslav, the son of Stefan, Sava left the Serbian maritime in for a trip to Palestine.

Second pilgrimage and death After the throne change in , when King Radoslav was succeeded by his brother Vladislav, Archbishop Sava began his second trip to the Holy Land. Legacy and cult Saint Sava is the protector of the Serb people: he is venerated as a protector of churches, families, schools and artisans. Relics The presence of the relics of St. Burning of relics When the Serbs in Banat rose up against the Ottomans in , using the portrait of Saint Sava on their war flags, the Ottomans retaliated by incinerating the relics of St.

Churches dedicated to St. Sava There are many temples dedicated to St. Visual arts There are close to no Serbian churches that do not have a depiction of St. Ktetor Sava founded and reconstructed churches and monasteries wherever he stayed. Works The earliest works of Sava were dedicated to ascetic and monastic life: the Karyes Typikon and Hilandar Typikon. Website royalfamily.