St. Sava of Serbia

January 12: Sava of Serbia.

St. Sava of Serbia (also Savvas and Sabbas) was the first Archbishop of Serbia.

Sava was born Prince Rastko Nemanjic (either 1175 or 1176), the son of Stefan Nemanja, the Serbian ruler and founder of the medieval Serbian state. His brother, Stefan Prvovencani, was the first Serbian king.

The young Rastko left home to join the Orthodox monastic community on Mount Athos. Taking monastic vows, he was given the name Sava (Serbian form of Sabbas) in honour of St. Sabbas. In 1197, his father, Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, joined him. They moved to and restored the abandoned Hilandar monastery, which at that time became the center of Serbian Orthodox Christian monastic life.

St. Sava's father took monastic vows under the name Simeon. He died in the Hilandar Monastery on February 13, 1200 and canonized as Saint Simeon.

When Sava entered his native land in 1207, he found the country just as Simeon had informed him in his dream—in total disarray. The Serbian state was split in two. Vukan, the eldest of the three brothers, who was bitter over the appointment of his younger brother Stephen as heir to the throne, was set to launch a campaign against Stephen's portion of the divided kingdom.

When he returned, Sava brought with him the medicine to heal the entire situation: the relics of his father, the Grand Župan and saint, Stephen Nemanja—Simeon the Myrrh-flowing and co-founder of Hilandar.

Sava invited his two brothers to a memorial service for their father. As the casket was opened, before their eyes the body of their father was found to be sweet-smelling, exuding a fragrant oil and myrrh, warm and aglow, looking very much alive, as if he were only restfully sleeping. This act of veneration of their father was the first step in healing the fraternal schism between Vukan and Grand Prince 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 ruler Stephen Nemanja.

St. Sava managed to persuade the Patriarch of Constantinople, who was residing in Nicea since Constantinople was under Latin rule until 1261, to establish the independence of the Serbian Church in the year of 1219. Sava was selected to be elevated to Archbishop at the age of 44.

Sava abdicated from archepiscopal see in 1233 and appointed his most capable pupil St. Arsenije as Archbisop of Serbia.

St. Sava left for Trnovo, Bulgaria, the capital of King Ivan Asen II's Bulgarian kingdom. 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, 1235. He was buried at the Cathedral of the Holy Forty Martyrs in Trnovo where his body remained until May 6, 1237, when his sacred bones were moved to the monastery Mileseva in southern Serbia. 360 years later the Ottoman Turks dug up his relics and burned them in the main square in Belgrade.

There were many miracles at the grave of St. Sava in the Mileševa monastery. Venetian diplomat Ramberty who visited Mileševa in 1534 wrote that not only Serbs, but also Turks and Jews were visiting the monastery and asking for healing.

St. Sava is remembered as the founder of the independent Serbian Orthodox Church and is celebrated as the patron saint of education and medicine among Serbs. Prince Miloš of Serbia January 13 (Julian), 1830, proclaimed St. Sava the patron saint of Serb schools and schoolchildren.

The Temple of St. Sava in Belgrade was completed in 2004 and is the largest active Orthodox temple in the world today. It was built on the place where the holy bones were burned.

References:
Sava of Serbia. OrthodoxWiki.
Cathedral of Saint Sava - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Saint Sava - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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