Saint Sava

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For the Bulgarian saint, see Saint Sava (disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius).
Ana
Occupationarchbishop
Signature

Saint Sava (

Serbian medieval literature.[4][5][6][7][8]

He is widely considered one of the most important figures of

largest church buildings in the world
.

Biography

Early life

Rastko (

Lim region with Bijelo Polje while Rastko held Hum.[14] After two years, in autumn 1192 or shortly afterwards, Rastko left Hum for Mount Athos.[10] Miroslav may have continued as ruler of Hum after Rastko had left.[15] Athonite monks were frequent visitors to the Serbian court – lectures perhaps made him determined to leave.[10]

Mount Athos

Late 18th century Serbian orthodox icon of Saint Sava and his father Saint Simeon

Upon arriving at Athos, Rastko entered the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery where he received the monastic name of Sava (Sabbas).[12] According to tradition, a Russian monk was his spiritual guide or mentor[10] and was said to have had earlier visited the Serbian court with other Athonite monks.[12] Sava then entered the Greek Vatopedi monastery, where he would stay for the next seven years, and became more closely acquainted with Greek theological and church-administrational literature. His father tried to persuade him to return to Serbia, but Sava was determined and replied, "You have accomplished all that a Christian sovereign should do; come now and join me in the true Christian life".[10] His young years at Athos had a significant influence on the formation of his personality, it was also here that he found models on which he would organize monastic and church life in Serbia.[16][17]

Stefan Nemanja took his son's advice

abdicated on 25 March 1196, giving the throne to his middle son, Stefan.[12] The next day, Nemanja and his wife Ana took monastic vows.[12] Nemanja took the monastic name Simeon and stayed in Studenica until leaving for Mount Athos in autumn 1197.[18] The arrival was greatly pleasing to Sava and the Athonite community, as Nemanja as a ruler had donated much to the community. The two, with consent of hegumen (monastery head) Theostyriktos of Vatopedi, went on a tour of Athos in late autumn 1197 in order for Simeon to familiarize with all of its churches and sacred places; Nemanja and Ana donated to numerous monasteries, especially Karyes, Iviron and the Great Lavra.[19]

When Sava visited the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos at Constantinople, he mentioned the neglected and abandoned Hilandar, and asked the Emperor that he and his father be given the permit to restore the monastery and grant it to Vatopedi.[19] The Emperor approved, and sent a special letter and considerable gold to his friend Stefan Nemanja (monk Simeon).[19] Sava then addressed the Protos of Athos, asking them to support the effort so the monastery of Hilandar might become the haven for Serb monks.[19] All Athonite monasteries, except Vatopedi, accepted the proposal. In July 1198 Emperor Alexios III authored a charter which revoked the earlier decision, and instead not only granted Hilandar, but also the other abandoned monasteries in Mileis, to Simeon and Sava, to be a haven and shelter for Serb monks in Athos.[19] The restoration of Hilandar quickly began and Grand Prince Stefan sent money and other necessities, and issued the founding charter for Hilandar in 1199.[19]

Sava wrote a

Karyes (seat of Athos) for the monks who devoted themselves to solitude and prayer.[19] In 1199, he authored the typikon of Karyes.[19] Along with the hermitage, he built the chapel dedicated to Sabbas the Sanctified, whose name he received upon monastic vows.[19] His father died on 13 February 1199.[18] In 1204, after 13 April, Sava received the rank of archimandrite.[20]

As Nemanja had earlier (1196) decided to give the rule to

Studenica monastery, and then reconciled his quarreling brothers.[22] Sava saved the country from further political crisis by ending the dynastic fight, and also completed the canonization process of Nemanja (Simeon) as a saint.[23][24]

Enlightenment

Sava blessing Serb youth, Uroš Predić (1921).

Having spent 14 years in Mount Athos, Sava had extensive theological knowledge and spiritual power.

siege of Constantinople (1204) into the hands of the Crusaders, and the strained relations between the Despotate of Epirus (where the Archbishopric of Ohrid was seated, which the Serbian Church was subordinated to) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Nicaea, into his advantage. The Studenica Typikon became a sort of lex specialis, which allowed Studenica to have independent status ("Here, therefore, no one is to have authority, neither bishop nor any one else") in relation to the Bishopric of Raška and Archbishopric of Ohrid. The canonization of Nemanja and the Studenica Typikon would be the first steps towards the future autocephaly of the Serbian Church and elevation of the Serbian ruler to king ten years later.[26][20]

Crowning of Stefan, by Anastas Jovanović.

In 1217, archimandrite Sava left Studenica and returned to Mount Athos. His departure has been interpreted by a part of the historians as a reaction to his brother Stefan accepting the royal crown from Rome.[25] Stefan had just prior to this made a large switch in politics, marrying a Venetian noblewoman, and subsequently asked the Pope for a royal crown and political support.[27] With the establishment of the Latin Empire (1204), Rome had considerably increased its power in the Balkans. Stefan was crowned by a papal legate, becoming equal to the other kings, and was called "the First-Crowned King" of Serbia.[28][29]

Stefan's politics that led to the events of 1217 were somewhat in odds with the Serbian Orthodox tradition, represented by his brother, archimandrite Sava, who favored Eastern Orthodoxy and Byzantine ecclesiastical culture in Serbia. Though Sava left Serbia while talks were underway between Stefan and Rome (apparently due to disagreeing with Stefan's excessive reliance on Rome), he and his brother resumed their good relation after receiving the crown. It is possible that Sava did not agree with everything in his brother's international politics, however, his departure for Athos may also be interpreted as a preparation for obtaining the autocephaly (independence) of the Serbian Archbishopric.[25] His departure was planned, both Domentijan and Teodosije, Sava's biographers, stated that before leaving Studenica he appointed a new hegumen and "put the monastery in good, correct order, and enacted the new church constitution and monastic life order, to be held that way", after which he left Serbia.[25]

Fresco in Mileševa.

Autocephaly and church organization

Sava reconciling his quarreling brothers, Paja Jovanović (1901)

The elevation of Serbia into a kingdom did not fully mark the independence of the country, according to that time's understanding, unless the same was achieved with its church. Rulers of such countries, with church bodies subordinated to Constantinople, were viewed as "rulers of lower status who stand under the top chief of the Orthodox Christian world – the Byzantine Emperor". Conditions in Serbia for autocephaly were largely met at the time, with a notable number of learned monks, regulated monastic life, stable church hierarchy, thus "its autocephaly, in a way, was only a question of time". It was important to Sava that the head of the Serbian church was appointed by Constantinople, and not Rome.[30]

On 15 August 1219, during the feast of the

Latin Patriarch of Constantinople.[25] Sava had thus secured the independence of the church; in the Middle Ages, the church was the supporter and important factor in state sovereignty, and political and national identity. At the same time, both Laskaris and Manuel were delighted that Serbian policy was continuously looking towards Constantine the Great's legacy – Byzantium – rather than Rome.[36]

From Nicaea, Archbishop Sava returned to Mount Athos, where he profusely donated to the monasteries.[25] In Hilandar, he addressed the question of administration: "he taught the hegumen especially how to, in every virtue, show himself as an example to others; and the brothers, once again, he taught how to listen to everything the hegumen said with the fear of God", as witnessed by Teodosije.[25] From Hilandar, Sava traveled to Thessaloniki, to the monastery of Philokalos, where he stayed for some time as a guest of the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, Constantine the Mesopotamian, with whom he was a great friend ever since his youth.[25] His stay was of great benefit as he transcribed many works on law needed for his church.[37]

Upon his return to Serbia, he was engaged in the organization of the Serbian church, especially regarding the structure of bishoprics, those that were situated on locales at the sensitive border with the Roman Catholic West.

Lipljan; Prizren, seated at Prizren.[38] Among his bishops were Ilarion and Metodije. In the same year Sava published Zakonopravilo (or "St. Sava's Nomocanon"), the first constitution of Serbia; thus the Serbs acquired both forms of independence: political and religious.[39][40]

Fresco detail of Saint Sava in Studenica Monastery, Serbia

The organizational work of Sava was very energetic, and above all, the new organization was given a clear national character. The Greek bishop at Prizren was replaced by a Serbian, his disciple. This was not the only feature of his fighting spirit. The determination of the seats of the newly established bishoprics was also performed with especially state-religious intention. The Archbishopric was seated in the

Monastery of Žiča, the new endowment of King Stefan.[41] The bishopric in Dabar on the Lim river was situated towards the border with Bosnia, to act on the Orthodox element there and suppress the Bogomil teaching. The bishopric of Zeta was located on the Prevlaka peninsula, Bay of Kotor, out of real Zeta itself, and the bishopric of Hum in Ston; both of these were almost on the outskirts of the kingdom, obviously with the aim to combat the Catholic action which had spread especially from the Catholic dioceses of Kotor and Dubrovnik. In earlier times, also Orthodox monasteries were subjected to the supervision of the Catholic Archdiocese of Bar; after Sava's action that intercourse began to change in the opposite direction. After Sava's organization, Orthodoxy finally became the state religion of Serbia. Sava, in that respect, worked consistently and without any regard. The Bogomils had been prohibited already by his father, Nemanja, while Sava, as an Athonite Latinophobe, did his part all to prevent and weaken the influence of Catholicism. Through his clergy, which he directly influenced as an example and with teaching, Sava rose also the general cultural level of the whole people, striving to develop human virtues and a sense of civic duty. The Serbian state thought of the Nemanjić dynasty was created politically by Nemanja, but spiritually and intellectually by Sava.[42][43]

First pilgrimage

Mar Saba, where Sava founded Serbian cells
Trojeručica, a Serbian Orthodox icon

After the crowning of his nephew

crosier of Sabbas the Sanctified, which he brought to Hilandar. After a short stay at Studenica, Sava embarked on a four-year trip throughout the lands where he confirmed the theological teachings and delivered constitutions and customs of monastic life to be kept, as he had seen in Mount Athos, Palestine, and the Middle East.[45]

Second pilgrimage and death

After the throne change in 1234, when King Radoslav was succeeded by his brother Vladislav, Archbishop Sava began his second trip to the Holy Land.[46] Prior to this, Sava had appointed his loyal pupil Arsenije Sremac as his successor to the throne of the Serbian Archbishopric.[46] Domentijan says that Sava chose Arsenije through his "clairvoyance", with Teodosije stating further that he was chosen because Sava knew he was "evil-less and more just than others, prequalified in all, always fearing God and carefully keeps His commandments".[46] This move was wise and deliberate; still in his lifetime he chose himself a worthy successor because he knew that the further fate of the Serbian Church largely depended on the personality of the successor.[46]

Sava began his trip from

Saracens, in his name".[46] Sava had a prolonged stay in Jerusalem; he was again friendly and brotherly received by Patriarch Athanasius.[46] From Jerusalem he went to Alexandria, where he visited Patriarch Nicholas, with whom he exchanged gifts.[46]

After touring the holy places in

Ivan Asen II (father-in-law of King Vladislav) and Bulgarian Patriarch Joakim.[48]

Sava died ill on his way home from the Holy Land, on 12 January 1235, in Tarnovo, Bulgarian Empire
.

As on all his destinations, he gave rich gifts to the churches and monasteries: "[he] gave also to the Bulgarian Patriarchate priestly honourable robes and golden books and candlesticks adorned with precious stones and pearls and other church vessels", as written by Teodosije.[49] Sava had after much work and many long trips arrived at Tarnovo a tired and sick man.[50] When the sickness took a hold of him and he saw that the end was near, he sent part of his entourage to Serbia with the gifts and everything he had bought with his blessing to give "to his children".[50] The eulogia consisted of four items.[51] Domentijan accounted that he died between Saturday and Sunday, most likely on 27 January [O.S. 14 January] 1235.[50]

Sava was respectfully buried at the

Mileševa on 19 May [O.S. 6 May] 1237. "The King and the Archbishop, with the bishops and hegumens and many noblemen, all together, little and great, carried the Saint in much joy, with psalms and songs".[50] Sava was canonized, and his relics were considered miraculous; his cult remained throughout the Middle Ages and the Ottoman rule.[52]

Legacy

Fresco from Saint Sava in Monastery Bogorodica Ljeviška

Saint Sava is the protector of the Serb people: he is venerated as a protector of churches, families, schools and artisans.[54] His feast day is also venerated by Greeks, Bulgarians, Romanians and Russians.[54] Numerous toponyms and other testimonies, preserved to this day, convincingly speak of the prevalence of the cult of St. Sava.[54] St. Sava is regarded the father of Serbian education and literature; he authored the Life of St. Simeon (Stefan Nemanja, his father), the first Serbian hagiography.[54] He has been given various honorific titles, such as "Father" and "Enlightener".[b]

The Serb people built the cult of St. Sava based on the religious cult; many songs, tales and legends were created about his life, work, merit, goodness, fairness and wisdom, while his relics became a topic of national and ethnopolitical cult and focus of liberation ideas.[54] In 1840, at the suggestion of Atanasije Nikolić, the rector of the Lyceum, the feast of Saint Sava was chosen to celebrate Education every year. It was celebrated as a school holiday until 1945 when the communist authorities abolished it. In 1990, it was reintroduced as a school holiday.[55]

The Serbian Orthodox Church venerates saint Sava on January 27 [O.S. January 14].[54]

Biographies

The first, shorter, biography on St. Sava was written by his successor, Archbishop Arsenije.

Giovanni Thomas Marnavich
wrote about him.

Relics

The presence of the relics of St. Sava in Serbia had a church-religious and political significance, especially during the Ottoman period.

Banat Uprising, on April 27, 1595. Painting by Stevan Aleksić
(1912)

Burning of relics

Further information:
Fenek monastery wrote that "there was great violence carried out against the clergy and devastation of monasteries".[56] The Ottomans sought to symbolically and really, set fire to the Serb determination of freedom, which had become growingly noticeable. The event, however, sparked an increase in rebel activity, until the suppression of the uprising in 1595.[61] It is believed that his left hand was saved]; it is currently held at Mileševa.[62]

The Church of Saint Sava was built near the place where his relics were burned. Its construction began in the 1930s and was completed in 2004. It is one of the largest churches in the world.

Divine Services

the largest churches in the world
.

Churches dedicated to St. Sava

There are many temples (hramovi) dedicated to St. Sava. As early as the beginning of the 14th century, Serbian Archbishop

Helena of Bulgaria, the wife of Emperor Stefan Dušan (r. 1331–55), founded a chapel on the top of the tower in Karyes, dedicated to St. Simeon and St. Sava.[58] One of the churches of Rossikon on Mount Athos, as well as a church in Thessaloniki, are dedicated to him.[58] Churches throughout Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro are dedicated to him, as well as churches in diaspora communities.[63]

Visual arts

Fresco in Patriarchate of Peć

There are close to no Serbian churches that do not have a depiction of St. Sava.

Monastery of Peć, an assembly of Sava is depicted.[64] Iconographer (zograf) Georgije Mitrofanović illustrated events from the Life of St. Sava in the dining room of Hilandar.[64] "The Serbian miracle-workers" Sava and Simeon are depicted in the Archangel Sobor in Kremlin, in Moscow.[64] In the chapel of the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, the Life of St. Sava is depicted in eight compositions, and in the Athonite monastery of St. Panteleimon Monastery he is depicted as a monk.[64]

St. 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.

Krka,[64] and on the triptych of Orahovica.[54] On an icon of Morača, beside a scene from his life, he is depicted with St. Simeon, knez Stefan and St. Cyril the Philosopher.[54]

Graphical illustrations of St. Sava are found in old Serbian printed books: Triode from the

Three-handed Theotokos icon.[54] 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.[54]

Literature

Many Serbian poets have written poetry dedicated to St. Sava. These include Jovan Jovanović Zmaj's (1833–1904) Pod ikonom Svetog Save and Suze Svetog Save, Vojislav Ilić's (1860–1894) Sveti Sava and Srpkinjica, Milorad Popović Šapčanin's (1841–1895) Svetom Savi, Aleksa Šantić's (1868–1924) Pred ikonom Svetog Save, Pepeo Svetog Save, Sveti Sava na golgoti, Vojislav Ilić Mlađi's (1877–1944) Sveti Sava, Nikolaj Velimirović's (1881–1956) Svetitelju Savo, Reči Svetog Save and Pesma Svetom Savi, Milan Petrović's (1902–1963) Sveti Sava, Vasko Popa's (1922–1991) St. Sava's Journey, Momčilo Tešić's (1911–1992) Svetom Savi, Desanka Maksimović's (1898–1993) Savin monolog, Matija Bećković's (b. 1939) Priča o Svetom Savi, Mićo Jelić Grnović's (b. 1942) Uspavanka, and others.

Works

The earliest works of Sava were dedicated to ascetic and monastic life: the Karyes Typikon and Hilandar Typikon.[65] In their nature, they are Church law, based strictly on non-literary works, however, in them some moments came to expression of indirect importance for the establishment of an atmosphere in which Sava's original and in the narrow sense, literary works, came to exist.[65] In addition, characteristics of Sava's language and style come to light here, especially in those paragraphs which are his specific interpretations or independent supplements.[65]

Karyes Typikon with Sava's signature (1199).
  • Karyes Typikon, written for the Karyes cell in 1199. It is basically a translation from a standard Greek ascetic typikon. It became a model for Serbian solitary or eremitical monasticism also outside of Mount Athos.[66]
  • Hilandar Typikon, written for Hilandar in 1199. Compiled as a translation and adaptation of the introductory part of the Greek Theotokos Euergetis typikon from Constantinople. Sava only used some parts of that typikon, adding his own, different regulations tailored to the needs of Hilandar. He and his father had donated to the Euergetis monastery, and Sava stayed there on his trips to Constantinople, seemingly, he liked the order and way of life in this monastery. This typikon was to become the general managing order for other Serbian monasteries (with small modifications, Sava wrote the Studenica Typikon in 1208).[67] The Hilandar Typikon contains regulations for the spiritual life in the monastery and organization of various services of the monastic community (opštežića).[68]

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 (protopopovi). Legal regulations of the Serbian Church was constituted with a code of a new, independent, compilation of Sava – the Nomocanon or Krmčija; 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 continued.[69][70]

1262 transcript of the Zakonopravilo (1220).
  • Nomocanon (sr. Zakonopravilo) or Krmčija, most likely created in Thessaloniki in 1220, when Sava returned from Nicaea to Serbia, regarding the organization of the new, autocephalous Serbian church. It was a compilation of state ("civil") law and religious rules or canons, with interpretations of famous Byzantine canonists, who by themselves were a kind of source of law. As Byzantine nomocanons, with or without interpretation, the Serbian Nomocanon was a capital source and monument of law; in the medieval Serbian state, it was the source of the first order as a "divine right"; after it, legislations of Serbian rulers (including Dušan's Code) were created. Sava was the initiator of the creation of this compilation, while the translation was likely the work of various authors, older and contemporary to Sava. An important fact is that the choice of compilation in this nomocanon was unique: it is not preserved in Greek manuscript tradition. In the ecclesiastic term, it is very characteristic, due to its opposing of that period's views in effect on church-state relations in Byzantium, and restoring of some older conceptions with which the sovereignty of divine law is insisted on.[71]

His liturgical regulations include also Psaltir-holding laws (Ustav za držanje Psaltira), which he translated from Greek, or as possibly is the case with the Nomocanon, was only the initiator and organizer, and supervisor of the translation.

Velika Remeta monastery.[74] The proper literary nature of Sava is however revealed only in his hagiographical and poetic compositions. Each in its genre, they stand at the beginning of the development of convenient literary genres in the independent Serbian literature.[75]

In the Hilandar Typikon, Sava included the Short Hagiography of St. Simeon Nemanja, which tells of Simeon's life between his arrival at Hilandar and death. It was written immediately after his death, in 1199 or 1200. The developed hagiography on St. Simeon was written in the introduction of the Studenica Typikon (1208).[76]

  • Hagiography of St. Simeon, written in 1208 as a ktetor hagiography of the founder of Studenica.[76] It was made according to the rules of Byzantine literature.[76] The hagiography itself, biography of a saint, was one of the main prose genres in Byzantium.[76] Hagiographies were written to create or spread the cult of the saint, and communicated the qualities of and virtues of the person in question.[76] The work focused on the monastic character of Simeon, using biographical information as a subset to his renouncing of the throne, power and size in the world for the Kingdom of Heaven.[77] Simeon is portrayed as a dramatic example of renouncing earthly life, as a representative of basic evangelical teachings and foundations of these, especially of monastic spirituality.[77] His biographical pre-history (conquests and achievements) with praises are merged in the prelude, followed by his monastic feats and his death, ending with a prayer instead of praise.[77] The language is direct and simple, without excessive rhetorics, in which a close witness and companion, participant in the life of St. Simeon, is recognized (in Sava).[78] Milan Kašanin noted that "no old biography of ours is that little pompous and that little rhetorical, and that warm and humane as Nemanja's biography".[78]

Very few manuscripts of the works of St. Sava have survived.[79] Apart from the Karyes Typikon, of which copy, a scroll, is today held at Hilandar, it is believed that there are no original manuscript (authograph) of St. Sava.[79] The original of the Charter of Hilandar (1198) was lost in World War I.[79]

St. Sava is regarded the founder of the independent medieval Serbian literature.[80]

Ktetor

Fresco in Gracanica Monastery.

Sava founded and reconstructed churches and monasteries wherever he stayed.

Philotheou.[44] In 1197 he gave a large contribution to the Constantinopolitan monastery of the Holy Mother of God Euergetes, and did the same to Philokallou in Thessaloniki; "due to him also giving much gold for the erection of that monastery, the population there regard him the ktetor", according to Teodosije.[44]

Returning to Serbia in 1206, Sava continued his work. The Mother of God Church in Studenica was painted, and two hermitages near Studenica were endowed.

Mileševa monastery.[44] In Palestine, on Mount Sinai, he founded the Monastery of St. John the Apostle, as a shelter for Serb pilgrims.[44] Sava donated gold to many monasteries in Palestine, Thessaloniki, and especially Mount Athos.[44] His ktetor activity was an expression of deep devotion and sincere loyalty to Christian ideals.[44]

And many other churches across Serbia, as well.

Reconstructions
Donations

And many other donations in Jerusalem and Serbia.

See also

Eastern Orthodox Church titles
First
Founding of
Serbian Church
Archbishop of Serbs

December 6, 1219 – 1233 		Succeeded by
Royal titles
Preceded by Prince of
Hum
under Stefan Nemanja

1190 – 1192 		Succeeded by
Miroslav or Toljen

Annotations

  1. Alexis Vlasto[10]
    supports ca. 1174.
  • ISBN 9788607007905
    .)